Shock at death of top agent

The sudden death of Kim McDonald at age 45 has left a significant hole in world athletics, and touched some its leading international names.

Over the past two decades McDonald had grown into the most important athletics agent of all time. Closer to home, he was best known as the man who fostered the international career of Sonia O'Sullivan, and was a key influence on most of her biggest championship wins.

News of his death in Brisbane, Australia, where he had been on holiday alone, first broke on Saturday morning, though his housekeeper is reported to have discovered his body last Wednesday. He is believed to have suffered a heart attack.

A former athlete of note and contemporary of the Coe-Ovett era, the Yorkshire-born McDonald soon turned to coaching, achieving considerable success with the likes of British miler Peter Elliott. He was also one of the first to recognise that athletes would need professional representation as money poured into the sport in the mid-1980s.

Even earlier, on trips to East Africa in the 1970s, McDonald had seen the potential for Kenyan athletic development, and he was subsequently responsible for their mass emergence on the world stage.

Renowned for his serious business acumen and a reputation for honest and straight dealing, McDonald was soon representing a large group of leading athletes from Steve Ovett to John Walker, as well as the Irish elite including John Treacy, Frank O'Mara and Marcus O'Sullivan. But his most significant Irish link was with Sonia O'Sullivan.

They first met after a mile race in France in 1991. Two years later he had become her agent, and then her coach. Shortly after that they began a relationship. After her disappointing 1996 Olympics, however, he was back acting solely as her agent.

Speaking from Melbourne, where she is training lightly while expecting her second baby, O'Sullivan expressed her obvious shock at his death.

"I was in Brisbane last week, but the only reason we didn't meet was he was on holiday, and I knew he'd be coming here to Melbourne this week," she said.

"But we talked on the phone. I was really looking forward to seeing him, and I think he was pleasantly surprised when I said I wanted to get back to a situation where he advised me, and we talked every day."

IAAF president Lamine Diack had recently nominated McDonald as his special adviser, and yesterday added to the tributes: "I remember Kim as a young man full of life and enthusiasm. We had been friends for many years and I greatly appreciated the seriousness, honesty and passion he demonstrated when we worked together on the development of athletics in Africa.

"I am sure that the world athletics family, but especially the many athletes whose careers Kim followed with professionalism and true affection, feel with me the tragic loss of this great manager."

It was through the Kenyan runners that McDonald achieved his true fame. Moses Kiptanui, former steeplechase world-record holder, was his first major star.

His management company, known as KIM, has offices in London and Boston. Irishman Ricky Simms has been part of his staff for the last couple of years, and he was in Australia to help McDonald prepare his winter training camp in Brisbane. McDonald also had camps in London, Boston and Kenya.