Athletics: Foster's Refusal Starts City Hunt for a Chairman

The search for someone to head the sport in Britain towards the 2012 Olympics is set to change direction after Brendan Foster became the latest high-profile former top runner to turn down the role of chairman of UK Athletics.

Foster, a previous world record holder and European champion, is the latest big name to withdraw after Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram had ruled themselves out for the role created after the resignation this year of Dave Moorcroft as chief executive.

Coe had been expected to take the part-time job but decided he wanted to concentrate on his role as chairman of the London 2012 organising committee. Cram feared the job would conflict with his position as a commentator with the BBC.

The 58-year-old Foster, the 1976 Olympic 10,000 metres bronze medallist, was seen as the ideal candidate after a long association with the sport and having built up a successful company in Nova International, organisers of the Great North Run, the world's biggest half-marathon. UK Athletics is now expected to offer it to a top businessman.

At least two former chairmen of FTSE 100 companies are understood to have expressed an interest in the position. Foster's refusal to take the role is set to delay the appointment of a replacement for Moorcroft, the former world record holder for 5,000m, because a decision on the £100,000-a-year chief executive will not be taken until the chairman is in place. Moorcroft has agreed to stay on until a successor is appointed.

Two favoured candidates for the position of chief executive, the former hurdler Jon Ridgeon, now managing director of the marketing agency Fast Track, andthe former international marathon runner Geoff Wightman, chief executive of Scottish Athletics, have both turned down the opportunity.

A spokeswoman for UK Athletics said that it would probably be the New Year before someone was appointed.