This article needs to be updated.(September 2020) |
Sport | Athletics |
---|---|
Abbreviation | UKA |
Founded | 1999 |
Affiliation | World Athletics |
Regional affiliation | European Athletics |
Location | Birmingham, England |
President | Denise Lewis [1] |
Chairman | Ian Beattie |
Replaced | British Athletics Federation |
Official website | |
www | |
UK Athletics (UKA) is the governing body for the sport of athletics in the United Kingdom. It is responsible for overseeing the governance of athletics events in the UK as well as athletes, their development, and athletics officials. The organisation outwardly rebranded itself as British Athletics in 2013, although it remains legally known as UK Athletics, and continues to use the UK Athletics name in internal governance. [2]
UK Athletics is structured as a non-profit company limited by guarantee. It has four member organisations from each of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom: England Athletics, Scottish Athletics, Welsh Athletics, and Athletics Northern Ireland.
UK Athletics was founded in 1999 as a successor to the British Athletics Federation, [3] which had collapsed for financial reasons. Prominent among the reasons was the cost of the legal bills in the Diane Modahl contract dispute case. [4] [5]
Former long distance runner David Moorcroft, previously Chief Executive of the British Athletics Federation, continued in the same role at the newly formed UKA. [6] He headed the organisation until 2006 when he stepped down after Great Britain's worst performance at a European Athletics Championships for twenty years. The results in Gothenburg (their sole gold medal coming in the 100 m relay) were below expectations and failed to meet the target for improving British athletics in preparation for the upcoming 2012 London Olympics. [7] Moorcroft's departure triggered a restructuring of the organisation and the creation of the role of chairman, to which businessman Ed Warner was appointed. [8]
Charles van Commenee was made national head coach, a newly created role, in September 2008. [9] [10] Shortly afterwards Peter Eriksson was appointed head coach of the Paralympic Programme. [11] Van Commenee stepped down after the London 2012 Olympics due to the team's failure to meet the medal target he had set. [12] This was despite a reasonably favourable reaction to Britain's achievement of six medals and the desire of UK Athletics that he should remain in the post. [13] Van Commenee was succeeded by Peter Eriksson, who served only seven months of a five-year contract before resigning for personal reasons. UKA Performance Director Neil Black was appointed temporary replacement. [14] A restructuring announced in December 2013 saw the single role of head coach replaced by three heads of department (endurance, sprints and field events). [15]
The athletes compete in Olympic competition under the brand name of Team GB.
The current CEO is Jack Buckner [16] and the Chair is Ian Beattie. [17] Denise Lewis was elected as the organisation's president in December 2023, succeeding Jason Gardener, [1] but stepped down temporarily from the post in February 2024. [18]
Dame Denise Rosemarie Lewis is a British sports presenter, sports administrator and former track and field athlete, who specialised in the heptathlon.
Kelly Jade Sotherton is a British former heptathlete, long jumper and relay runner. In the heptathlon she was the bronze medallist at the 2004 Summer Olympics and, following the disqualification of two other athletes, also at the 2008 Summer Olympics, as well as being part of the bronze medal-winning team in the Women's 4x400m relay at the 2008 Summer Olympics. As such she is one of only five women to win multiple medals in Olympic heptathlon. She also won a bronze at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. Representing England, Sotherton is a one-time Commonwealth Games champion, as the heptathlon gold medallist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
David Robert Moorcroft is a former middle-distance and long-distance runner from England, and former world record holder for 5,000 metres. His athletic career spanned the late-1970s and 1980s. He subsequently served as the Chief Executive of UK Athletics from 1997 to 2007. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1983 and promoted to an Officer (OBE) in 1999, in both cases for services to athletics. In March 2023, he was appointed a Deputy lieutenant of the West Midlands.
Yamilé Aldama Pozo is a Cuban-born triple jumper. She represented Cuba until 2003, Sudan from 2004 to 2010, then Great Britain from 2011 onwards. A four-time Olympian (2000–12), she won a silver medal at the 1999 World Championships and a gold medal at the 2012 World Indoor Championships.
Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill is a retired British track and field athlete from England, specialising in the heptathlon and 100 metres hurdles. As a competitor in heptathlon, she is the 2012 Olympic champion, a three-time world champion, and the 2010 European champion. She is also the 2010 World Indoor pentathlon champion. A member of the City of Sheffield & Dearne athletic club, she is a former British national record holder for the heptathlon. She is also a former British record holder in the 100 metres hurdles, the high jump and the indoor pentathlon.
Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah is a Somali-born British retired long-distance runner. Considered one of the greatest runners of all time, his ten global championship gold medals make him the most successful male track distance runner ever, and he is the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic Games history. Farah is the first ever global Goodwill Ambassador of the International Organisation for Migration as announced on 28 November 2023 at the 114th Session of the IOM Council.
Steven ("Steve") James Lewis is an English pole vaulter. His personal best jump of 5.82 metres, set in July 2012, is the former British record for the event. Indoors his best is 5.77 m, achieved in Dessau on 2 March 2012.
Marilyn Chinwenwa Okoro is a British track and field athlete. She finished third in the 800 metres at both the 2007 and 2008 IAAF World Athletics Final. She was on the bronze winning 4 × 400 m relay at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. She represented Great Britain at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and finished sixth (1:59.53 mins) in the semi-finals. She was part of the 4 × 400 m relay team which finished fifth in the final of the 2008 Summer Olympics although the team was later upgraded to bronze medal position following disqualification for doping offences of the teams finishing in third and fourth place.
Charles van Commenee, written in Dutch as van Commenée, is a Dutch athletics coach. He began his professional career as a technical director with the Dutch athletics federation before moving to take up a similar role for the British athletics team in 2001. After a term as Performance Director for the Dutch Olympic Committee, he served as Head Coach of British Athletics from 2008 to 2012. Additionally, he has personally coached athletes to international medals, including Denise Lewis, Kelly Sotherton and Huang Zhihong.
Sir Charles Lawrence Somerset Clarke, 7th Baronet, OLY is a former professional 110 m hurdler who finished fourth in the London Olympic Games 110 m hurdles final. He is the son of Sir Toby Clarke, 6th Baronet and succeeded to the baronetcy on his father's death in 2019. He served as Captain of the Great Britain Athletics Team at the 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships and was coached in Bath by Malcolm Arnold. He was coached in Paris by Giscard Samba Koundys for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He currently works for Citigroup in London. He is also a member of the American Roosevelt family.
William "Will" Sharman is a British athlete who specialises in the 110 metres hurdles. He started his career as a junior high jumper and decathlete, but focused entirely on hurdling after a shoulder injury. He made his international debut for Great Britain at the 2006 European Athletics Championships and went on to compete at the 2007 Summer Universiade. Sharman came to prominence in 2009, after he significantly improved upon his previous personal best and finished fourth in the 110 metres hurdles final at the 2009 World Championships. This would be the first of three consecutive appearances in the World Championship final, he's since finished fifth in both the 2011 and 2013 finals.
Jodie Alicia Williams is a British sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres, having begun her career concentrating on 100 and 200 metres. A prodigious junior, she is the 2009 World Youth Champion at 100 and 200 m, the 2010 World Junior Champion at 100 m, the 2011 European Junior Champion at 100 and 200 m, and the 2013 European U23 Champion at 200 m.
The United Kingdom competed under the name Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The nation was represented by 72 athletes at the 2010 European Athletics Championships held in Barcelona, Spain.
Amanda Jayne Reddin OBE, née Harrison, later Kirby, is a gymnastics coach, and former Olympic gymnast, for Great Britain. Personal coach of many successful gymnasts, including three-time world champion and Olympic medallist Beth Tweddle, double Olympian Hannah Whelan and Olympian Jennifer Pinches. Reddin coached for many years at the City of Liverpool Gymnastics Club. She was Head National Coach for British Gymnastics until stepping down in May 2022 just weeks before an independent review into abuse in the sport.
Peter Eriksson is an athletics coach and formerly the head coach of the Olympic and Paralympic programs for both British Athletics and Athletics Canada. Eriksson has over 30 years of coaching experience in speed skating and track and field; and has led Canada to record medal performances in the 2016 Olympic Games, 2015 World Championships and 2014 Commonwealth Games. Under his leadership as performance director and head coach, the nations that he has worked with has generated over 240 medals at major International Competitions.
Dr. Tiffany Adaeze Porter is a track and field athlete with joint British and American nationality who specialises in the 100 metres hurdles. She represented the United States as a junior, but began representing Great Britain in 2010 on joining the senior ranks after moving to England and competed for Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Katarina Mary Johnson-Thompson is an English athlete. A multi-eventer, she is primarily known as both a heptathlete and an indoor pentathlete. In heptathlon she is a double world champion and double Commonwealth Games champion. In indoor pentathlon, she is a world and double European champion.
Hannah Lucy Cockroft is a British wheelchair racer specialising in sprint distances in the T34 classification. She holds the world records for the 100 metres, 200 metres, 400 metres, 800 metres and 1500 metres in her classification and the Paralympic records at 100 metres, 200 metres, 400 metres and 800 metres. Competing for Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, she won two gold medals. She won three further gold medals at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The BAWA Athlete of the Year is an award presented by the British Athletics Writers' Association (BAWA) to the British athletes voted to have been adjudged to have been best of the year in British athletics.