Lee McConnell believes her long-time coach Rodger Harkins is the right man to take over as director of coaching at scottishathletics because of his insight in working at the highest levels of the sport.
The world and European medallist ended their tie-up when she retired earlier this year, leaving the one-time Scotland international to oversee the relay squads at the Commonwealth Games. And McConnell claims Harkins possesses a ruthless streak that will keep athletes and coaches on their toes. "Rodger had to have honest conversations with me over the years during our partnership and he will be able to make tough decisions," said McConnell, pictured. "But it will be a big plus that everyone already knows and respects him."
"There's always some resistance if a new person comes in, especially from outside Scotland. He's been in the system and knows it locally, as well as from a GB level, so it will be a popular appointment because of the rapport he's built up with a lot of athletes."
Harkins will formally take over from Stephen Maguire next month but with the pair working closely together over the past two years, it is likely to see minimal change in the approach.
"They think along the same lines," McConnell added. "Rodger has the same kind of vision."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article