Mystery surrounds a highly regarded British Athletics coach who has not been heard from since visiting Morocco around two months ago.
Leon Baptiste, 41, who coaches a number of elite athletes including the Paris Olympic 4x400m relay bronze medallist Charlie Dobson, is believed to have gone to Morocco for the weekend with some close friends for a stag do or golf trip.
However, he has not been heard from since by his athletes or the UK Athletics officials who pay him as a Loughborough-based consultant, with messages to his phone not returned.
UKA have declined to comment, citing confidentiality. The Guardian spoke to a former British teammate of Baptiste, who said: “He was a very calm and sensible chap, in my experience. No one knows what has happened. It is very worrying.”
Dobson has struggled with injuries in Baptiste’s absence and failed to make it out of the 400m semi-finals at the European championships in Birmingham earlier this week.
After finishing fourth in his semi-final in a time of 45.18sec, over a second outside his personal best of 44.14 set last year, Dobson alluded to the situation when he said it had been “an interesting eight weeks”.
He also said he had been struggling with some injury niggles that had contributed to his withdrawal from the recent Commonwealth Games. He did not compete in the heats of the men’s 4x400m on Friday morning and it remains to be seen if he returns to the track for Sunday evening’s final.
In the meantime UKA staff have stepped in to help Dobson and the rest of Baptiste’s group, with former European 400m champion and relays coach Martyn Rooney taking Dobson under his wing.
Baptiste was a talented sprinter who won 200m and 4x100m relay gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi before being forced to retire aged 28 because of a serious knee issue.
Surgery resulted in him missing the London 2012 Olympics before he moved into coaching after deciding not to defend his Commonwealth titles at the 2014 Games in Glasgow.
“As much as I am sprinting and progressing, my body has never fully recovered from my knee surgery,” he said that year. “My coach and I feel that Glasgow Commonwealth Games qualification is a tall order – so the time has come for my focus to move elsewhere.
“The decision for an athlete to retire is never easy, but in essence the decision has been made for me.”
The British Embassy in Rabat has been approached for comment.