TORONTO — Anthony McCleary and Desai Williams have been fired as coaches with Canada’s track and field team.

Athletics Canada announced Wednesday that Jeff Huntoon has been hired as head coach of the East High Performance Hub in Toronto as part of a restructuring, replacing McCleary and Williams.

Charles Allen and Jason Kerr will work as mentor coaches.

“The reorganization follows a review of the high performance plan to ensure Athletics Canada is on the right performance path towards Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2020,” Athletics Canada said in a statement on its website.

Huntoon is the personal coach of high jump world champion Derek Drouin, and joined Athletics Canada in October of 2014 as the combined events and jumps coach. 

The Wisconsin native has 25 years of coaching experience. Prior to joining Athletics Canada he was associate head coach at Indiana University, coaching five NCAA champions and helping the Hoosiers to 12 individual and two team Big Ten Championships.

McCleary and Williams led a sprints and hurdles group in Toronto that included Nikkita Holder, Phylicia George, Gavin Smellie, Khamica Bingham, Kim Hyacinthe and Crystal Emmanuel, among others. They also coached Canada’s women’s 4×100-metre relay team, which broke the national record three times this season, and the women’s 4×400 team.

 

The Canadian Press