UK Athletics (UKA) has today appointed three new directors for its High Performance Centres (HiPAC) at Loughborough, North London and West London.

The new directors, Matt Favier, West London; Eric Shirley, North London; and Tim Jones, Loughborough, will play a pivotal role in the development of the centres of excellence.

Matt Favier takes up his new post after being UKA’s London Performance Director. The 41-year-old joined UKA in 2003 after working for the Australian performance programme and Australian Institute of Sport. He also coached Harry Aikines-Aryeetey to World Junior 100m gold.

Former Olympic swimmer, Tim Jones joined UKA last July as Senior Performance Manager for disability after working as head of World Class Youth and on the Age programmes at British Swimming.

Eric Shirley, aged 51, joins UKA from London Marathon where he held the jobs of elite athlete coordinator and Mini-marathon race director.

Dave Collins, UKA Performance Director, said: “These are really important positions as we see the HiPACs as the engine rooms of our future success.

“We have taken a lot of trouble to recruit the right people and I’m very pleased to announce Matt, Tim and Eric as they will make a significant difference to the quality of support for our World class athletes and coaches.”