The Times alleges Mike Peters was allowed to continue coaching at Coventry Godiva Harriers between 2012 and 2017 despite Hyde Peters, a coaching coordinator and vice-chair at the midlands club, knowing he had been permanently barred from teaching in October 2012 over an "inappropriate relationship" with a 15-year-old schoolgirl.

Hyde Peters insists her husband only coached senior athletes.

She was due to start her position as UK Athletics chief executive on December 1, but the national governing body’s chair Chris Clark released a statement today to confirm that she will now not be doing so.

"Following recent press reports and significant media attention focused on Zara Hyde Peters, the UKA Board convened a meeting this past Sunday November 24 and discussed the situation fully," Clark said.

"Following the meeting I had time with Zara to review the situation and we have agreed together, that she will now not be taking up her position as CEO on December 1."

Peters was barred from teaching because of the inappropriate relationship between 2004 and 2005 while he worked as a physical education teacher at Bilton School in Rugby. 

Although he was acquitted of sexual misconduct in court, the official judgment of a subsequent teacher misconduct panel found he had committed "misconduct of a serious nature".

This included an "exchange of inappropriate photographs" with a vulnerable pupil. 

Hyde Peters' appointment as the new chief executive of UK Athletics was announced in August.

She had been set to replace Niels de Vos, who resigned in September 2018.

Hyde Peters worked for UK Athletics between 2000 and 2008 in a number of roles.

These included head of potential, technical director for endurance and director of athlete development. 

A former elite distance runner, she represented England at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, finishing 13th in the 10,000 metres.

Hyde Peters left UK Athletics to become chief executive at British Triathlon, a role she held between 2008 and 2014.

It was a period marked by a big growth in participation and Great Britain winning its first-ever Olympic medals in the sport, with Alistair Brownlee taking gold and his brother Jonathan the bronze in the men's race at London 2012.

After leaving British Triathlon, Hyde Peters had been the managing director at North Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group, part of the United Kingdom's National Health Service.

But she retained close links with sport as a member of the Board at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and chair of its Athletes' Advisory Committee.

BBC Sport reported that the Birmingham 2022 Board will discuss whether to temporarily suspend Hyde Peters.

The Commonwealth Games Federation is said to have written to the Birmingham 2022 urging them to suspend her from the two roles pending an investigation.