Norman warms up for a return to UK athletics' frontline

IT IS as if he has never been away. There he was, arms folded in trademark style, seated in the front row of the Stade de France not far from Denise Lewis’s controversial former steroid-peddling coach, Dr Ekkart Arbeit, scrutinising the Olympic heptathlon champion’s progress at the recent World Championships.

He was also in Paris to share in the glory of Kelly Holmes’s 800 metres silver medal, in which his role in getting the British middle-distance runner to train with Maria Mutola in South Africa was crucial.

And when Jonathan Edwards made a tearful curtain call on his international athletics career, he was nearby with the Olympic triple jump champion’s wife, Alison. In the two decades in which he bestrode the sport in this country, Andy Norman claimed much of the credit for the success of British athletics, often behaving as if it were his fiefdom. The athletes he managed read like a Who’s Who of those golden years: Steve Ovett, Linford Christie, Colin Jackson, Iwan Thomas, Steve Backley, Holmes and Edwards.

But dismissed in disgrace nearly 10 years ago, he is using his influence and contacts to make a return from exile.

A former policeman, Norman always was a great schemer, so as the top athletes he guided approach retirement, we should not be surprised to see him re-positioning himself at a time when the national governing body, UK Athletics - discredited for its weak stance on doping control, with its Lottery funding under review and with a lack of new stars too - is in crisis.

Norman has unfinished business with the governing body, since his sacking from what was then the British Athletic Federation in 1994. His previous attempts to get back into the mainstream of the sport’s organisation have been frustrated, but over recent months Norman has been making promises and calling in old favours to ensure that the British candidate, Lord Sebastian Coe, got elected to the ruling council of the world governing body. What Norman expects in return for such a "favour", only time will tell.

In 1994, Cliff Temple, the athletics correspondent of the Sunday Times, committed suicide on a railway track in Kent, aged 46. He had been suffering from depression over the collapse of his marriage and unfounded allegations against him by Norman, then BAF promotions officer. At the inquest, the coroner cited the threats made by Norman to Temple as a contributing factor in his death.

Norman was sacked from his 65,000-a-year job with BAF. Dave Moorcroft, one of Temple’s closest friends, led the calls for his dismissal.

The former 5,000m world record-holder is now the beleaguered chief executive of the British governing body.

The Temple inquiry was the last straw as far as Norman’s questionable management of Britain’s top televised meetings were concerned. It was the third official investigation into his activities.

He had been accused of subverting drug testing at British meetings, making sure that athletes who "had a problem" either went untested or were able to submit clean urine (courtesy of an obliging steward, it was rumoured) Later, Norman was accused of playing fast and loose with athletes’ appearance monies.

Despite lengthy investigations, neither charge was made to stick, although he was reproached by the chairmen of both inquiries. However, drug testing procedures were taken out of the control of athletics officials and proper receipts and accounting were required for all athletes’ payments.

Norman has since kept a profile so low as to be virtually subterranean, moving to South Africa with his second wife, former javelin world champion Fatima Whitbread. But he has never been far from the centre of things. He organised the 1998 European Championships in Budapest when the organising committee discovered late in the day that they were not up to it, and he has run the major meetings in South Africa for a decade.

Norman’s latest project is believed to be a multi-million dollar showcase planned for Moscow in two weeks. But reports of the involvement of the Russian Mafia have prompted some athletes to reconsider their participation.

Even Norman may not be entirely comfortable with his situation. "Andy now is an athletics mercenary," says Luciano Barra, the Italian who has worked with him for 20 years, "and when you are in that role, you have to take orders from those who pay. He is not enjoying it."

But despite being ostracised by British athletics, Norman has friends in high places, not least at BBC Sport. Maurie Plant, "Andy’s bag man" in the "shamateur" days of athletics, is the BBC’s trackside "athletes’ liaison", despite being banned in Australia after attempting to subvert a drug test at a Norman-organised event.

Edwards is joining the BBC commentary box. Despite evidence of Norman’s bullying, he has never wavered in his support for his manager.

Edwards is the committed Christian who bought a Porsche with the earnings Norman helped him accrue. When the triple jumper had doubts about competing on Sundays, Norman, rather than God, won the day.