Three New Hires Made as British Swimming Attempts to Right Ship

LOUGHBOROUGH, England, December 6. THREE new administrative hires were announced today by British Swimming, days after the release of the report by an independent panel forced the resignation of one of its top officials.

While the search goes on to officially fill the roles left by Michael Scott's resignation as national performance director and Dennis Pursley's exit as national team head coach, the organization has moved around three people to help in the main office.

Mark Perry has worked with British Swimming's open water and development departments, and will now be the interim Technical Lead. According to British Swimming, Perry “will provide technical support to the five British Swimming Intensive Training Centres (ITCs) and to other coaches with swimmers on the World Class Programme.”

Graham Bassi will take over Perry's job as development director in an interim capacity. Bassi had been assistant coach at the Swansea Intensive Training Center.

Ian Mason, who served as director of World Class Operations, will now be the line manager in British Swimming, acting as supervisor to employees in the national performance department.

The hires come in a week that has seen the organization's most popular swimmer, Rebecca Adlington, blast British Swimming for its slow response time in picking new leadership.

She called the situation involving hiring Pursley's replacement “an absolute mess,” prompting British Swimming CEO David Sparkes to arrange an upcoming meeting with the 2008 Olympic champion.

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