Athletics Ireland have announced Max Jones as their new Director of Athletics. Jones was the UK Athletics High Performance Director from 1997 to 2004 and eventually retired from UK Athletics in 2005 after 24 years. During his time with UK Athletics Jones was coach to 7 Olympic Teams and Head coach for the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. Before taking up his new post with Athletics Ireland he was strength and conditioning coach to UK athlete Paula Radcliffe. Jones’ new position as Director of Athletics 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. Brendan Hackett, CEO of Athletics Ireland, was delighted with the appointment. “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. 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”, Hackett said at the announcement.