Stephen Maguire has pledged to nurture a new generation of talent after being named as Scottish Athletics new director of coaching.

However, the Northern Irishman will not take up his role until the autumn, almost 18 months after Laurier Primeau quit the post to return to Canada.

Maguire, who previously served in a similar role with the Athletics Association of Ireland, is currently No.2 to Florida-based Lance Bauman, the coach of a number of leading sprinters, including Olympic medal contender Tyson Gay.

The 48-year-old has also nurtured the career of double Paralympic champion Jason Smyth and plans to take the lessons learnt from both sides of the Atlantic to Scotland.

Maguire said: "We have athletes that can succeed at the highest level. I believe we need to support these athletes and coaches and help them develop. Having said all that, like anything worthwhile in life, the job for me and the challenge we face will not be easy.

"It takes an awful lot of hard work to become a world-class athlete and a world-class coach, but we want to build a world-class system for our athletes and coaches that can be benchmarked against best practice anywhere across the globe."

Maguire will help appoint two further specialist coaches to fill the void left by a series of departures, including that of field events coach, Steve Rippon.

However, with the Olympics looming large, Nigel Holl, the chief executive of Scottish Athletics, defended the decision to go into the summer without filling the senior coaching position.

Holl said: "The priorities for this new team are long-term – making sure the structures deliver the right support to the right athletes and coaches when they need it. It's worth waiting until September for those skills and experience, although Stephen will help us finalise the other members of the performance team over the next couple of months."