British Triathlon is delighted to announce the appointment of Brendan Purcell as the new Performance Director, and Ben Bright as the new Head Coach to work alongside Brendan.
British Triathlon has enjoyed its most successful four-year cycle, culminating in a fantastic Olympic triathlon event with Team GB medals won on the home stage. The organisation has taken great care to work with key stakeholders in the programme to identify the skills needed to move the World-Class Programme forward from its current position, ensuring a platform for further world-leading success.
British Triathlon particularly looked for a leader with strong influencing skills and experience of delivering on all the elements that make a difference in elite sport. In addition, the new leadership needed to build on the success of the Olympic Triathlon team, putting the key relationships (coach/athlete and support team) at the heart of the strategy required to produce sustained elite performance.
Brendan has worked with elite sports programmes for over ten years, including a role leading High Performance Diving in Australia. He then joined the GB Canoe Sprint programme prior to the 2008 Olympic Games, and at the London 2012 Olympics, he led the coaching team supporting the successful medal-winning GB Canoe Sprint team.
Ben, a previous Junior World Triathlon Champion himself, coached a number of World Championship winning triathletes before taking on the role of Men’s Olympic Coach within the British Triathlon Olympic Performance Group - a group created in May 2011 to focus solely on the British Triathlon Olympic Squad and who helped successfully guide the squad to British Triathlon’s best ever results in the Olympic Games.
On appointing Brendan and Ben, British Triathlon Chief Executive Zara Hyde Peters OBE said:
“I am delighted to introduce Brendan as our new Performance Director and Ben into a new permanent role as Head Coach.
“Brendan’s background of working with elite athletes within an Olympic multi-medal winning programme is exceptional. He has shown he has the essential skills to be an excellent leader of the programme supporting our Lottery funded elite athletes and I have great faith in what he will achieve.
“Ben’s experience in Olympic discipline elite triathlon is recognised throughout this country and the world. He is greatly respected amongst those he has worked with – both athletes and coaches. This respect is well deserved and will contribute massively to his success in fulfilling the Head Coach role alongside Brendan.
“I believe that in appointing both Brendan and Ben, British Triathlon will successfully address the challenges that lie ahead for the World Class programme and will continue to ensure that the GB Triathlon team leads the World.”
Thanks to British Triathlon for providing the above content