New UK Athletics technical director leads session at Finn Valley AC

Stephen Maguire, the newly appointed technical director of UK Athletics, was in Donegal on Friday to lead a session with a group of athletes.

Strabane native Maguire is closely associated with Finn Valley AC. Just two days after confirmation of his new role, Maguire was in Stranorlar to work with a group of Finn Valley’s up-and-coming sprinters.

Since last year, Maguire has headed up the Sprint Academy at Finn Valley.

Friday evening’s session, alongside Finn Valley AC coach Rosemary Finn, saw Maguire work with Finn Valley athletes Hannah Murray, Riona Doherty, Aoife McGee, Leah McMonagle, Lauren McConnell and Ellie Crossan.

Maguire was the Head Coach of the Irish Athletics Team for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where Patsy McGonagle was the team manager.

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Maguire had a storied spell working with the Great British squads and also in his role in Scotland, who he helped to four track and field medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

At the 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championships in London, Maguire helped to mastermind a stunning haul of medals. Britain won medals in all four relays, including the gold in the men’s 4x100m.

That came after Britain won bronze in the women’s 4x100m and 4x400m relays at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio and he was the 2017 BBC Coach of the Year.

Maguire left his role as the sprints and relays lead at UKA in 2020 after Christian Malcolm was picked ahead of him for head coach.

He has been working recently as head of high performance coaching at Sport Ireland and will succeed Malcolm in August after the World Championships.