K ATHLETICS have parted company with Forest-born performance director Dave Collins.

He left his post with immediate effect after being told his contract, due to expire next March, would not be renewed.

UK Athletics chief executive Niels de Vos believes the time is right for a change, with the Olympic Games in London in four years' time in mind.

"Our planning for this next Olympic cycle got under way several months ago and this decision and any subsequent appointment is the culmination of this detailed process."

Collins was born illegitimately in the Forest of Dean 54 years ago, but raised in London.

A leading sports psychologist, he got the job of performance director three years ago without even applying for it.

UK Athletics rejected the top six candidates, so their team of head-hunters continued a worldwide search for the right man.

Collins said of his Forest links, "My parents, the people who brought me up, are dead now, but they always told me I had been adopted so it was no big deal.

"However, I believe I am the son of an engineer and a nurse.

"Some adopted people find out at a later age who their natural parents are. For me it's not important. If they were in the next room then yes, I would go and talk to them. But I have no desire to find them. I would never call them mum and dad, but I would meet them. I have no bitterness towards my natural parents. Things were a lot different in those days.

"I have been back to the Forest two or three times, canoeing, running and biking. It's a nice area, but I am a Londoner."

Collins' departure from the top job in UK Athletics follows Britain's failure to meet the target of winning five track-and-field medals at the Beijing Olympics.

Team GB mustered a haul of four medals, with Christine Ohuruogu winning gold in the 400m, triple jumper Phillips Idowu and high jumper Germaine Mason taking silver, and Tasha Danvers claiming bronze in the 400m hurdles.