Charlie Dobson’s European Championships week was disrupted by the absence of Leon Baptiste, who has not been heard from since a trip to Morocco around two months ago. UK Athletics staff have stepped in, and Martyn Rooney has taken Dobson under his wing while the group waits for Baptiste to reappear.
European Championships in Birmingham
Dobson, the Paris Olympic 4x400m relay bronze medallist, finished fourth in his semi-final in 45.18sec, more than a second outside his personal best of 44.14. He also said he had been dealing with injury niggles, and that same run ended his 400m effort at the European Championships in Birmingham earlier this week.
He did not compete in the heats of the men's 4x400m on Friday morning. That leaves the Sunday evening men's 4x400m final as the only immediate race still on the table for him.
UKA steps in
Leon Baptiste, 41, coaches a number of elite athletes including Dobson, and UK Athletics officials pay him as a Loughborough-based consultant. With messages to his phone not returned, the coaching gap has fallen on UKA staff, a tidy institutional fix but not a seamless one for athletes who rely on a single coach's eye.
Martyn Rooney, the former European 400m champion and relays coach, has taken Dobson under his wing. That kind of handover is workable for one championship window, but it is not the same as a settled coach-athlete routine built over months.
Morocco and the delay
Baptiste is believed to have gone to Morocco for the weekend with some close friends for a stag do or golf trip. He won 200m and 4x100m relay gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, retired aged 28 because of a serious knee issue, missed the London 2012 Olympics after surgery, and moved into coaching after deciding not to defend his Commonwealth titles at the 2014 Games in Glasgow.
The contradiction is hard to miss: he is described as a calm and sensible chap, yet he has not been heard from for two months after that Morocco trip. For Dobson, the practical question is no longer about reputation or background; it is whether the coach-shaped void lasts long enough to keep affecting the race schedule and the athletes Baptiste usually guides. The British Embassy in Rabat has been approached for comment.
