It could be a seminal week for UK Athletics on the road to London 2012. Dave Collins, the national performance director, will return to work tomorrow facing the sack with Charles van Commenee, the Dutch coach who guided Denise Lewis to Olympic success in Sydney, being lined-up to replace him. It is the worst kept secret in the sport, but it is not the only secret.

As the feast of track and field drama from Beijing is slowly digested, the incredible success of Jamaica remains one of the stories of the XXIX Olympic Games. Britain could only look on as the small Caribbean island – population 2.8m compared to 60m in the United Kingdom – won 11 medals in athletics, six of which were gold.

Usain Bolt won three of those, but eight people making it onto the podium came from the same group – the MVP Track & Field Club. Seven of those won medals for Jamaica, one achieved their success for Britain.

Whether it be Collins in the final weeks in his position or Van Commenee, or whoever takes over, they could do worse than listen to Germaine Mason, the first Briton to win silver at the high jump at an Olympic Games for 100 years.

Mason is coached in Kingston at the MVP (Maximising Velocity and Power) centre by Stephen Francis, whose routine is so demanding and successful that this athlete with a thick Jamaican accent chuckles when he describes the end of a day’s session. “After that, you are knackered,” he says. “That’s a British term.”

His Jamaican accent is thick because he was born in Kingston, but he represents Britain courtesy of his dual passport. His father is British and lives in Jamaica while his mother is Jamaican and lives in west London.

Mason had been with Francis since he was a teenager but, after a disagreement in 2005, he switched sporting nationalities. Yet the lure of his coach was so strong that he sacrificed Britain’s lottery funding to ensure he is back with him.

Mason is part of a training group that includes Asafa Powell, the former 100m world record holder, Olympic 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser and Melanie Walker, the Olympic 400m hurdles champion. Members of MVP alone won more medals than the British track and field team.

Mason spends more than half the year training with them and the secret is a programme based on immense discipline.

“Steve is a strict father to his athletes,” says Mason. “We do not get much time to ourselves. It is training, training, training. We get up at five in the morning, which a lot of athletes think is ridiculous, but itis part of being disciplined and wanting to achieve whatever goal you want. You cannot party, you cannot drink. It is difficult but it works.

“A lot of other coaches can learn from what he has done. Not all athletes can adjust to that type of training but he has done a great job. Not being on lottery funding hurt me a bit but that is part of the sport. I made that sacrifice to train with Stephen Francis and it paid off big time.

“I am happy to be a part of Team GB and achieving this silver medal makes me even happier. A lot of athletes go elsewhere for coaches. I don’t think they would dedicate the medal to their coach and his country and this medal is definitely for Great Britain.”

Mason competes in the Aviva British Grand Prix at Gateshead today and can be sure of a hero’s welcome.