Black to stand down as Britain's performance director

Black to stand down as Britain's performance director
FILE PHOTO: Coach Alberto Salazar sits inside the Bird's Nest Stadium at the Wold Athletics Championships in Beijing, China, August 21, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble Copyright Phil Noble(Reuters)
By Reuters
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LONDON (Reuters) - Neil Black is to stand down as performance director of British Athletics at the end of the month, the governing body announced on Tuesday.

Black had been reported by British media to be considering his position after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) handed down a four-year ban to American Alberto Salazar, the former coach of Britain's Olympic champion distance runner Mo Farah.

While there is no indication of any wrongdoing on Black's part, he has been a supporter of Salazar, who was a British Athletics consultant until 2017 and who Black once described as a "genius".

"Neil will commence a detailed handover with performance staff until his departure and will fulfil his role supporting Mo Farah at this weekend's Chicago marathon," a statement from British Athletics said.

Britain won five medals at this month's world athletics championships -- its worst total since Helsinki 2005.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Toby Davis)

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