Australia's head athletics coach suspended by Athletics Australia

Only hours before champion Sally Pearson defended her Commonwealth gold medal, Eric Hollingsworth, head coach made a statement in which he indicated that Pearson had been a bad example to younger athletes by not appearing at the team camp last week. The comments lead to the suspension of Hollingsworth, after Athletics Australia condemned the statement as they considered that the coach should be supporting the Australian team and refrain from such harsh criticism.

Pearson was fined for not arriving in time for the pre-Commonwealth Games training camp, which lead to the coach’s comments, but several sources suggest that her performance at the world indoor championships in Poland in March was what set off the reproaches.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Holingsworth released a statement through a PR person, which upset Athletics Australia due to the content and the moment in which it was made:

“Some time has past (sic) since Sally’s camp has released its version of events publicly, and there’s been some adverse reaction so I’ve decided the facts of the matter need to be addressed,” Hollingsworth said.

“I want to speak to some of the points that have come out which paint a negative and incorrect picture of the events leading up to the Commonwealth Games”

“I asked legitimate questions of her after the (Sopot) race, and she didn’t like the line I was taking. So via her agent she sort (sic) a meeting with Athletics Australia’s president, CEO and High Performance Director, which I was not aware of until the day of, or day before the meeting.”

“While I thought at the time it was curious that I wasn’t involved in that process in any form, Sally raised her issues, and the powers-that-be found no problems with my actions, and there was no case to answer”

“Subsequently Sally dug her heels in, as is her right, and asked for what is a new ‘athlete performance advisor’ which is the conduit between the athletes and Athletics Australia.”

“I am that person for the bulk of the high performance athletes, but not all, from a work-load point of view. So we re-assigned Sally which is fine. We had a good working relationship for nearly a decade, but she decided my challenging style wasn’t what she was looking for, which is her prerogative.”

It appears then that Hollingsworth will be out of contract with AA after the Glasgow games and would be expected to have to reapply for his position.

By Janeth Taborda

Source:

The Sydney Morning Herald

abc.net.au

Photo: Getty Images

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