TWO leading figures in athletics, Lord Coe and David Bedford, are giving their backing to Charles van Commenee’s move to be appointed Great Britain’s performance director after the Olympic Games in Athens, which begin a week tomorrow. Coe, in particular, believes that the time has come to give the role to a non-British national and has made his views known to the recruitment agency assisting UK Athletics (UKA).

Coe, a double Olympic 1,500 metres champion and leader of London’s bid to host the 2012 Games, was approached by the agency, Whitehead Mann, for his views last week. He told them bluntly not to recommend British candidates to UKA. “I have felt for a long time, as have a lot of people in the sport, that it is probably time for overseas input,” Coe said yesterday.

After discussions with Coe, Bedford, a former 10,000 metres world record-holder and now elite race director of the Flora London Marathon, said: “We need to look outside this country.” Strictly speaking, appointing Van Commenee would not mean looking outside Britain; the Dutchman is UKA’s technical director for jumps and multi-events.

Van Commenee coached Denise Lewis to Olympic, European and Commonwealth heptathlon gold medals and is responsible for developing Kelly Sotherton into a world-class multieventer this season. “If every British athlete had a top-class coach like Charles, there would be more successful British athletes,” Sotherton said. “He is the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

Max Jones, Britain’s performance director, is retiring after the Athens Games. The urgent need for a world-class replacement was highlighted by Sir Andrew Foster in his review of the sport in May and has been underlined by the widely-held view that Britain is sending its weakest team to an Olympics since 1976, when only one bronze medal was won in athletics.

It is a view rejected by David Moorcroft, the UKA chief executive, who said: “We deal in optimism. We have athletes who, if they perform at their best, can win medals. It is worrying when parts of the media write people off before they get there.”

In Athens, Moorcroft will have one eye on his athletes and the other on the performance directors. He has said that the successful candidate may not be British and may not even have a background in athletics. It is understood, however, that no significant such names have applied, although it is reasonable to assume that John Herbert, the former Britain triple jumper who is head coach of Athletics Australia, has.

Simon Allatson, the chief executive of Australia’s governing body, has resigned from the post and, given the unrest, Herbert’s job may be in jeopardy. It is assumed that John Trower, Britain’s director of throws and coach to Steve Backley, has applied, while others are likely to include Tudor Bidder, the head of potential who left UKA last year to work in Australia, and Mike Winch, the former shot putter who was coach to England’s 2002 Commonwealth Games team.

Coe, though, insists that Van Commenee is the man and said: “Charles knows the system here and has the respect of our competitors.” Bedford added: “We need a dynamic person who has operated with athletes at the highest level and, in my opinion, Charles fits that bill perfectly.” An appointment is expected by mid-October.