Approaching 12 months without a coach, the world indoor 60m champion is concerned after recent talks with British Athletics failed to find a solution

Richard Kilty admits he is concerned that he faces going into Olympic year without the prospect of a coach.

The world and European indoor 60m champion has been without a coach for 12 months this week since the man who formerly guided him, Rana Reider, departed British Athletics and the UK.

He ended the season mid-September hopeful that British Athletics would be able to bring in a foreign coach of sufficient standard to train him and World Championships 400m finalist Rabah Yousif in the North East, but he told Athletics Weekly he had been left frustrated after discussions to solve his problem.

Kilty is resolved to spending the next few months travelling between Middlesbrough and British Athletics’ headquarters in Loughborough where he may find some input from one of the federation’s performance staff, but he hopes he can sort something more stable for the build-up to the outdoor season.

There’s not even a coach in the country that I can go to that would suit me or is at the level to coach me,” he said. There are a few coaches, but none of them suit the programme that I need.

It’s getting a bit ridiculous. I am a bit concerned going to Olympic year, but there’s no one I can say ‘this is my coach’.

I’m not too worried [for the winter] because I did that last year and in 2014 and I had a good indoor season, but outdoors I had a few injuries. I need someone to give me a bit of guidance to avoid injuries.

I don’t think the standard of sprint coaching [in Britain] is up to what the talent is. We’ve got a massive pool of talent but we’re definitely lacking decent sprint coaches in the UK. We’ve got good coaches for juniors, but I don’t think there’s that many elite senior sprint coaches in the UK.

I would consider moving abroad but it’s difficult. It’s whether British Athletics would support that.

I was hopeful British Athletics would bring a coach in or provide some set-up, but there’s no one in the North East that could be an assistant coach to oversee my sessions if I maybe had a coach abroad to write a programme.”

Richard Kilty is featured in the October 15 issue of Athletics Weekly.

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