Athletics: Performance director Dave Collins has denied that disgraced former sprinter Linford Christie operates as a mentor to young athletes within UK Athletics.
Marathon world record-holder Paula Radcliffe has questioned why Christie — who tested positive for excessive levels of the anabolic steroid nandrolone in 1999 - should be allowed to act as a moral guide to Great Britain's up-and-coming athletes, though she added that a coaching role was acceptable.
Collins now insists Christie's appointment by UKA last month was not as a mentor but as a coach, although the organisation's press release at the time of the recruitment appears to contradict his claim.
Collins said: "We were aware that Linford is a name and a character which arouses strong emotions in people, in both directions.
"Frankly though what we've done is to take the opportunity of looking at appointing two mentors and two technical coaches. Two of the guys who are named, Daley Thompson and Katharine Merry, are there in a mentoring role with junior athletes.
"Linford is there in a technical coaching role, extending the very good work he has been doing since before the Sydney Olympics (the other technical coach being Steve Backley).
"What we have done is use money from sponsors to extend (Christie's) role to be able to make greater use of his expertise in coaching."
The top line from a UKA press release circulated at the time of the appointment of Christie, Thompson, Backley and Merry in August read: "UK Athletics has appointed four athlete mentors to assist current senior and junior athletes in their long term preparations for major championships and their lives as professional athletes."
Further down the release, background was given on the four appointees under the bold, italicised sub-heading 'The Mentors'.
However, Collins insisted he had made clear all along what Christie's specific role was.
"At the press conference which launched Linford I made that very distinction, I've been making this distinction since we started planning this. I'm actually a bit disappointed that it has not been picked up," he said.
Asked whether Christie, who has not so far disputed that he is a mentor, was aware that he was actually a technical coach, Collins told BBC Radio Five Live: "I think he does know. Linford as a coach over the past few years has acted to provide input to the athletes that he works with from his experiences as a world-class competitor.
"What he does is to provide, at the top level, coaching and mentorship. The hiccup comes when people start to say 'here is Linford Christie mentoring our young athletes' and that seems certainly to have been the concern for a number of people."