British Athletics appoints Christian Malcolm as new head coach
Birmingham, September 3: British Athletics on Thursday announced the appointment of Christian Malcolm as the new Olympic Programme Head Coach. “Malcolm, who since January 2019 has been Head of Performance and Coaching at Athletics Australia was appointed following an open recruitment process and will take up his post later this year,” British Athletics said…
Birmingham [UK], September 3 (ANI): British Athletics on Thursday announced the appointment of Christian Malcolm as the new Olympic Programme Head Coach.
“Malcolm, who since January 2019 has been Head of Performance and Coaching at Athletics Australia was appointed following an open recruitment process and will take up his post later this year,” British Athletics said in a statement.
Malcolm will work alongside athletes and coaches to support performances across all disciplines and event groups, as well as lead the Great Britain and Northern Ireland senior teams at major championships.
Malcolm with an impressive competitive career had retired in 2014. He had previously been British Athletics technical lead for sprint relays, a position he held from March 2015 to December 2019.
The highlight of that was the double sprint relay medals won by the 4x100m teams at the home World Championships London 2017. The women’s team won silver, whilst the men’s 4x100m team won a global gold sprint relay medal for the first time since the Athens Olympics in 2004.
As a coach to individual athletes, he has also enjoyed success in the para-athletics programme, most notably in his role as a Performance Coach at Disability Sport Wales for just under three years. He coached Jordan Howe to T35 100m silver and Rhys Jones to a personal best – finishing fourth in the T37 100m – at the World Para Athletics Championships London 2017.
Before his 2014 retirement, Malcolm had represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the highest level. His World junior sprint double gold in 1998 heralded his credentials to the sport, going on to compete in four Olympic Games. With European Indoor gold and silver, World Indoor and European Championship silver, Commonwealth silver and bronze, as well as two World bronze medals as part of the GB & NI 4x100m relay team, his competitive career has certainly helped underpin his success in the coaching ranks.
At Athletics Australia, Malcolm was tasked with ensuring the coaching structures were world-class, working with the high-performance team to support elite athletes and their coaches towards major championships.
After the appointment, Malcolm expressed excitement and said throughout his coaching career he has aimed to get the best out of athletes.
“Words cannot describe how excited I am to have the opportunity to take this role on and be part of a new start for British Athletics. As an athlete I knew I wanted to give back to the sport when I finished competing,” Malcolm said in a statement.
“In all my coaching and advisory roles so far, I have wanted to help athletes avoid the errors I made and support them and their coaches to get the best out of themselves… I am looking forward to helping athletes and coaches towards success in Tokyo, Paris, and beyond,” he added.
Joanna Coates, CEO at British Athletics, said: “I am really pleased to appoint Christian to this role. His credentials are numerous but most impressive was the energy and vision he had for the Head Coach role during the recruitment process.”
“The panel were incredibly impressed by both his technical knowledge and approach to high performance – putting the athlete first, championing welfare and also a change in culture that will really enhance the World Class programme,” Coates added. (ANI)
