The 60-year-old former athlete - European 5,000 metres champion in 1986 and world bronze medallist a year later - has recently served with notable success as chief executive of British Swimming, and he is clear that fences have still to be mended following the acrimonious departure of former chief executive Jo Coates in October 2021.

"One of the important things for me is the values of the sport - you’ve got to sort of rebuild trust, to build trust, and I think that’s been slightly lacking," Buckner told insidethegames.

"Athletes are naturally confident people, so if you can rebuild trust they’ll probably do the rest themselves!"

Buckner was full of praise for the job done in the interim by the stand-in chief executive, Mark Munro, and new chairman, Ian Beattie, both formerly of Scottish Athletics.

"I definitely feel that in the last few months with Ian and Mark the sport’s made massive progress," he said.

"They deeply care about the sport and I think they’re doing a really, really good job."

Coates, from a netball background, announced a staff restructure in September 2020 that saw up to 25 per cent of the organisation’s administrative staff facing redundancy, and a long-term rights partnership with the BBC also expired, leaving UKA without a broadcast partner.

This upheaval was compounded by a disappointing Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games for UKA as Britain finished 24th in the athletics medals table with two silvers and three bronzes, having lost the men's 4x100m silver because of CJ Ujah's positive doping test.

British track and field athletes finished third in the London 2012 medals table with four golds and two silvers , and four years later in Rio they were sixth after earning two golds, a silver and four bronzes.

Matters appeared to come to a head in September last year when leading track and field athletes appealed to World Athletics President Sebastian Coe to intervene, amid complaints they had lost confidence in the performance team at UKA.

Referring to the commercial position of UKA, and its renewed relationship with terrestrial TV, Buckner added:

"I think there’s a lot more work to do still on that, and I think they would acknowledge that.

"Broadcast and media is one of the most-challenging areas for all sports.

"I think Mark and Ian have evolved things sensibly.

"Do the basics really well.

"That’s what the sport needs to do.

"So there need to be some good events to develop athletes and coaches in the right way.

"And to develop the profile of the sport.

"They started to work on all those things, and I also think they started more on the relationship with the home nations, which I think is key."

Buckner, who was previously chief executive of the British Triathlon Federation, will take over at UKA as the sport starts its build-up to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

As swimming’s chief executive, Buckner oversaw a hugely-successful Team GB performance at the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2021, with the Olympic team claiming a best-ever haul of eight medals including four golds, while the Paralympic team was the most-successful one competing for ParalympicsGB with 26 medals won.