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More blog articles The Kate Reed row is probably one thing Dave Collins won't miss dealing with
SO Dave Collins has gone. But if he'd hung around a little longer it would have been interesting to hear his views on the continuing controversy surrounding Kate Reed.
As most readers will know, Reed grabbed headlines during the Beijing Games following her tearful admission to the media that she had been forced to do a 2km time trial the night before the Olympic 10,000m final.
Many were outraged and questioned the decision by UK Athletics and the British Olympic Association to make her do this so close to the biggest race of her life. Just let her run and if drops out, then at least she's given it a go was most people's reaction. Plus, Paula Radcliffe did not have to prove her fitness, despite not having raced since the previous November.
But the Reed story has now taken a new twist with Reed telling the Bristol Evening Post this week that her room was searched for drugs by the BOA. She was then given an additional doping test by the BOA before the Olympic final.
Why? Well, UKA claim that Reed 'intimated' to two medics that she was planning to take morphine - a painkiller and banned drug. But Reed now says her comments were a joke and misunderstood.
The entire thing is a huge mess, but probably very entertaining for many in an athletics fraternity starved of gossip since the introduction of UKA athlete contracts, complete with clauses ordering athletes not to criticise the governing body or sponsors.
Reed, of course, is not a Lottery funded athlete, so she is not beholden to such demands by the governing body. She speaks her mind and doesn't pull any punches.
And as if this story wasn't spicy enough already, it should be remembered that AW ran a story last winter about Reed, 25, being in a relationship with her coach, Alan Storey, the senior performance manager for endurance at UKA.
Collins has now left UKA "to pursue other interests". He may have been frustrated and disappointed to have left UKA with unfinished business and London 2012 only four years away. But I guess he will not miss having to deal with ructions in the British camp such as the one explained in this blog.
* For more on this story, see the latest, Sept 4, issue of Athletics Weekly
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