Scottish Athletics is to launch a worldwide search for a new coaching supremo, nine months after the previous incumbent quit the job in an apparent power struggle behind the scenes.
And the governing body has been urged to make a swift appointment, and give the successful applicant the freedom to get on with the job as he or she sees fit.
The departure of Laurier Primeau, who has since been recruited to lead Canada's team at next summer's Olympic Games, was blamed on a clash of philosophies with Frank Dick, the Scottish Athletics chairman. The lengthy delay in finding a replacement, during which the respected interim chief Steve Rippon opted to jump ship to a role in Finland, has been blamed for creating a void in the critical lead-up period to both London 2012 and Glasgow 2014.
It is understood that a new post of Director of Coaching will be advertised today in tandem with two other developmental roles, fitting into a revamped regional structure drawn up by Dick, the former British Olympic team chief.
Chris Baillie, the hurdler, says the priority must be a period of continuity that allows athletes to focus on delivering on track and field. "We need something to happen," said the 2006 Commonwealth silver medallist. "No-one recently has had enough time in post to put a plan into practice. It's seemed like, every six months, a coach comes and goes and the plans change.
"It doesn't have a huge effect on us as athletes because we're out training hard every day. But when you have someone telling our coaches to do one thing, and then someone else arriving with a different idea, it means there's no stability."
Baillie, who is aiming for a place in the Great Britain team for the world indoor championships in Istanbul in March, has been without a full-time coach since he came back to Glasgow following his release from UK Athletics performance programme in Bath. That the sport has no dedicated sprint coach in Scotland has not escaped his attention. Having a strategy that gives the best prospects the support they need must come first, he underlines.
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