The club said it has recently, with the help of the Guernsey Sports Commission, started the process of working towards drawing up a new development plan, and Mr Merrien's appointment will help pave the way to successful implementation of the plan.

He said he is really looking forward to getting back involved on a development level again. working with Guernsey Athletics to hopefully "build a stronger schools programme and offer athletics to children across a range of school ages."

Mr Merrien said: "I've long been positive about the benefits of athletics being an all-inclusive sport for all shapes, sizes and abilities and furthermore the more child that are exposed to athletics based activities can only be beneficial in helping develop their physical literacy and athleticism.

"Both Tom and I are also really keen to re-launch a revamped Super 6 programme which proved successful a few back and assuming we can find a sponsor for the initiative it will enable us to offer indoor athletes to secondary school children too."

Mr Druce added: "I have a huge amount of respect for Lee and all he has achieved in the sport and I am really excited to get to work in tandem with him as the club continues to move forwards. I feel it has been a challenge to implement a thorough schools programme alongside the rest of the work I have been doing to develop other aspects of the sport locally and Lee is really motivated to help remedy that. It was of course he who devised the very successful Super 6 initiative the first time around.

"I know that outside of his main role in schools, Lee will also bring some great ideas to the table in terms of other areas of the club. We have already established that our outlooks on many key aspects are well aligned and are both hopeful that this will set up a fantastic era for Guernsey Athletics."

Pictured: Lee Merrien in the recent Commonwealth Games marathon