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UK Athletics appoint Steve Paulding as interim programme director

Humidity could be a problem in the Khalifa Stadium
Image: UK Athletics appoint Steve Paulding as interim programme director

UK Athletics has appointed Steve Paulding as interim world class programme director until after next year's Olympics in Tokyo.

The governing body have been looking for Neil Black's replacement after it was announced he would leave at the end of last month.

Neil Black
Image: Neil Black left his role as Performance Director in October

Black left as performance director in the wake of coach Alberto Salazar's ban and Britain's athletes falling short of their medal target at the World Championships, with Black having previously called Salazar, Sir Mo Farah's former coach, a genius.

Paulding, who joined British Athletics in 2016 as national performance institute director, was head coach to Great Britain's Olympics track cycling team at the Sydney Olympics. He will oversee liaison with UK Sport, while head of performance support Tommy Yule has also been named as director of performance support.

Chairman Chris Clark said: "It is very important to us to ensure continuity in our performance area.

"We have a very talented group of athletes coming through for Tokyo 2020. Our recent performances in Doha show huge potential across many disciplines and events.

"Our key medal hopes are well known to us and the rising stars are making huge gains in their personal performances.

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"Our WCP team will be very well served by Paula [Dunn], Steve, Tommy, Stephen [Maguire], Barry [Fudge] and Peter [Stanley]. They have fantastic experience to draw from and are a truly world class group.

"With Zara Hyde Peters also arriving we have a CEO with a strong performance background and knowledge of the workings of WCP programmes.

"I know she will be devoting a significant amount of time to the team to help with preparation and the overall management of the area."

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