UK Athletics has been dealt yet another blow in the build up to the Paris Olympics with the shock news that a third senior coach has left the crisis-hit organisation in the past month.
The resignation of Scott Simpson, the highly regarded head of field and combined events, has stunned insiders given he was seen as the frontrunner to be performance director at UKA after the 2024 Games.
Yet after just a year in his role, which involved developing and managing the world-class programme, providing support for athletes and coaches, and bringing on future stars, the Guardian can reveal that he has decided to quit UKA to return to full-time coaching.
Simpson has agreed to a consultancy role until after Paris 2024. However, the loss of a coach who guided Holly Bradshaw to Olympic bronze in Tokyo, and helped world championship gold medallist Katarina Johnson-Thompson and her coach, Aston Moore, counts as major blow nine months before Paris.
Last month, Stephen Maguire, who as technical director was in overall charge of the performance of British athletes, was sensationally sacked by the UKA chief executive, Jack Buckner, only two months after the team returned from the world championships in Budapest with a record-equalling 10 medals.
Maguire had gone into a meeting at Loughborough expecting to discuss UKA’s worsening financial crisis. Instead he was told his services were no longer required. Meanwhile another top coach, relay guru Benke Blomkvist, announced at the start of October that he was returning to Sweden after being at UKA since 2015.
UKA is also having to deal with ongoing financial problems, and its latest accounts – which are due at the end of the month – are expected to make grim reading.
This year the governing body had to make 10 staff redundant after reporting losses of £1.8m. There are fears of further cuts after UKA made a six-figure loss from the Diamond League in London this summer, despite the event selling out and UK Sport providing £150,000 in emergency help.
UKA also no longer has the funds to put on its annual indoor grand prix event in Birmingham, which usually attracts big names every February, and there are growing concerns over how much of the £430,000 in reserves it has left.
