Coach Eric Hollingsworth receives more criticism after Commonwealth drama

Commonwealth medallist Jared Tallent says the suspension of Athletics Australia head coach Eric Hollingsworth “should have happened two years ago”.

Tallent, who won Commonwealth Games gold in 2010 and has three Olympic medals, said he had a series of run-ins with Hollingsworth over his coaching arrangements and received little or no support from the controversial coach.

Hollingsworth received a lot of criticism two weeks ago, when he made harsh statements against medallist Sally Pearson, after he fined her and other athletes for not attending a pre-Games team camp.

Tallent is only one several athletes who have spoken out against Hollingsworth, saying he was almost impossible to deal with and that he should have been disciplined a long time ago.

“Over the last two years I’ve had quite a few problems with Eric and trying to deal with those problems and getting to AA it was always very difficult and there were instances where we felt like because we didn’t do what Eric wanted we were being, you could say, a little bit punished in the things that we wanted to do,” Tallent said on SEN.

The athlete even suggested that some of his colleagues might have had their funding slashed because of personal disagreements with Hollingsworth. “They determine all the funding. If you’re an athlete and you get off-side with that part of the high performance department of Athletics Australia, there is a consequence that you may receive less funding or no funding at all, which in some cases some athletes have.”

Originally published as: Jared Tallent says Eric Hollingsworth should have been suspended years ago by news.com.au

By Janeth Taborda

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