Former Olympian Symington named UK Athletics performance director

(Reuters) - UK Athletics (UKA) have appointed former Olympic cyclist Sara Symington as their new performance director, the governing body announced on Thursday.

Symington, 50, competed for Britain at the Sydney and Athens Olympics before retiring in 2004 and taking up coaching roles at British Cycling and British Triathlon. She also worked as performance advisor at UK Sport.

"I am delighted to join British Athletics at this juncture in its journey," Symington said.

"I'm an athlete at heart who moved into leadership roles but my overriding ambition has always been about creating an environment where our athletes and staff thrive and deliver continued success both individually and collectively."

Symington spent six years as performance director of Archery GB before taking up the same position at England Netball, putting in place a full-time programme for the Roses and guiding them to Commonwealth Games gold in 2018.

At UK Athletics, Symington will be responsible for delivering the Olympic and Paralympic World Class Programmes.

UKA's former performance director Neil Black stepped down from his role last October and died earlier this year at the age of 60.

(Reporting by Arvind Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Christina Fincher)