Jones appointed to top Athletics Ireland post

Athletics Ireland have today announced Max Jones as its new director of athletics.

Jones was high performance director at UK Athletics from 1997 to 2004, before retiring from the organisation in 2005 after 24 years.

During his time with UK Athletics, Jones was coach to seven Olympic teams and head coach for the 2000 and 2004 Olympics.

Jones’ new position will see him have overall responsibility for Ireland’s international athletes. He will work closely with both the athletes and their personal coaches to enhance and maximise their performances.

"Max joins us with a wealth of experience and ability from his time with UK Athletics and we are very excited about what he can bring to our existing Irish athletes and those athletes of the future," said Athletics Ireland CEO Brendan Hackett.

"He will be instrumental in developing our high-performance programme and will also be looking into developing our coaching programme as we focus on the 2012 Olympics in London."