Medal haul pacifies fiery Van Commenee

UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee believes Britain's record medal haul at the European Championships is also helping to improve the sport's public image.

Britain won a total of 19 medals in Barcelona - six gold, seven silver and six bronze - eclipsing the previous best of 18 achieved in Split in 1990, although that did include nine golds. But Van Commenee reckons the manner of the performances in the Olympic Stadium was equally important as athletics attempts to regain its former popularity and standing with the viewing public.

Asked if the public would have a different view of the team after Barcelona, the 52-year-old Dutchman said: "I hope so. I think we have a much higher degree of accountability. I think people take responsibility for not only victory but also failure. We do have too big a number of injured athletes but we decided they should stay at home and not be here to make up the numbers and have an excuse afterwards, saying I had a niggle or whatever.

"I think it's one of my duties to raise the image of the sport. The image is very important for the longer future.

"So we do it in a proper way. You may finish fourth sometimes or second but as long as we learn and do better the next time that's fine.

"I think they (the athletes] understand and I think a lot of people see a different team, a different sport than a few years ago. I am proud of that."

Last year Van Commenee famously banned athletes from making excuses by talking about pains and injuries, using some colourful language to describe how outsiders would view such complainers. And the message seems to have got through, with very few athletes offering injury as an excuse for a poor performance.

"I know there are a few who had a good reason not to be at their best but it wasn't mentioned and that's good," Van Commenee added. "I know and the medical staff know, but if it's really life-threatening you're not in the blocks anyway.

Van Commenee has something of a fearsome public profile himself, gaining a reputation of being a hard-nosed coach after branding Kelly Sotherton a "wimp" after winning Olympic heptathlon bronze in 2004.

Former Olympic champion Denise Lewis labelled him "The Volcano", but interestingly is one of only two athletes Van Commenee says he keeps in touch with after 27 years as a coach. Asked if he cared if athletes liked him, he replied: "I couldn't care any less. You need to have distance as a coach because if you get too close - and I've been too close with a number of athletes as a young coach - you have too much empathy almost. It is business in the end - it's not a pastime. You should have fun, but it's serious about winning and losing."

He added: "A coach needs to be able to play a lot of cards - toughness is only one, but always empathy. If you don't have empathy, you don't understand what drives another person, or what another person is sensitive for, or the weaknesses, then coaching is impossible."

Yet if the women's 4x100m relay team thinks that means they will get away with "diabolical" baton changing in the heats in Barcelona, they better think again. "It's unacceptable, schoolgirl mistakes and it will have consequences," Van Commenee warned.