Early in 2009 I rang Peter Eriksson when he was at his home in Ottawa - to which he is presumably returning once he has seen through his truncated duties as head coach for UK Athletics, a position he has just announced he will be leaving at some point this year despite having signed a five-year contract.

At that time the Swede was about to take up position as head coach for Britain's Paralympic track and field athletes, with the London 2012 Games looming, and his thoughts on the task ahead proved to be highly relevant to the results he went on to achieve.

As Eriksson was due to be working with the then head coach of the Olympic athletics team, Charles van Commenee, I mentioned to him the incident at the 2004 Athens Games which did much to define the Dutchman's "4-real" status as a coach when he reduced his heptathlete Kelly Sotherton to tears and called her "a wimp" after she had narrowly failed to win silver rather than bronze.

The Swede gave a chuckle that came all the way down the line - or whatever it is these days - from Canada, before announcing: "I don't think that's my style."

But as he explained his approach to what was due to become an increasingly high-profile task in the course of the following three years, it became clear that Eriksson was hardly likely to be a less exacting taskmaster than the Dutchman.


"I want to make sure the team performs better in 2012 and beyond. I think there's a lot of things we can do that are going to make a difference. We have to look at ourselves and say: 'What do we need to do to win more medals?'

"We have to ask if athletes have medal potential or whether they need to be replaced by up-and-coming talents. We need to make sure they have the right support, the right coach. Whatever we can do to help them we will do.

"But UK Sport is investing in medals, not subsidising athletes. Everybody has to be sure of what is expected of them. If athletes can't live up to the expectations that have been set then this is not the place to be."

Eriksson made it clear that two of the major factors which had persuaded him to take up his British task were the leadership within UK Athletics, and - frankly - the fact that Britain's performance at the next Paralympics could only get better.

"When I looked at Britain's medal count at the last two Paralympics I was surprised they were not higher up the rankings," Eriksson said.

"We will be optimising our performance by 2012, but what we doing 2016 could be the biggest definition. In the long term, Britain should be up in the top three medal positions. There is no doubt about that. To do that, if Beijing was anything to go by, we will need to be winning more than 25 medals.

"The medal history for the UK has gone backwards a little bit. In 2000 the count was 47 medals. In 2004 the total was 17, and it was the same in Beijing.

"Britain shouldn't be in that position, and that is something I have wondered about for a while. Why did it drop down so much? In the past there have been more medal events to contest, which may be a factor. But it doesn't mean Britain should go from 47 medals to 17. This is a challenge."

As we have seen, Eriksson rose to that challenge exceptionally well. The London 2012 Paralympic performance in athletics rose sharply as home athletes rose to the task of producing peak efforts in front of packed crowds.

David Weir wins his fourth gold of the London Paralympics, where the host athletes won 11 golds and 29 medals

Standing in the Mall after David Weir had won the wheelchair marathon, Eriksson was asked to reflect upon the British Paralympian's performance. He was clearly satisfied - but as he recalled the medals which had been won it had to be pointed out to him by those press gathered around him that he had forgotten a couple of golds. Such riches...

In the end Britain's Paralympic track and field athletes managed that task of finishing third overall in the table, with 29 medals, of which 11 were gold. Weir, who contributed four of those golds, had been the only athletics gold medallist for Britain at the previous Paralympics.

The measure of Eriksson's achievements is the measure of how greatly he will be missed by UK Athletics as they look ahead to the Rio 2016 Games. In his case, the usual politician's line about resigning in order to spend more time with their family is actually true.

"Words cannot describe how disappointed I am to take this step," Eriksson saidd. "There is no bigger job in athletics anywhere in the world. "At present I have no plans, but I accept that if I am to take any other job in sport it will be a step down.

"Athletics in Great Britain receives the best possible support through the National Lottery, and that, coupled with the performance structure here means it is every coach's dream to hold this position.

"However, no job is more important than family and children, and personal circumstances mean that mine need me to be back in Canada."

The total budget for the Canadian athletes at the 2008 Paralympics was £350,000 ($530,000/€415,000) - almost 20 times less than the £6.6 million ($10.1 million/€7.8 million) of UK Sport funding earmarked for athletics in the Paralympic cycle leading to London 2012.

So Eriksson will know very well the relative limitations he might face in taking up a similar job in his adopted home. It looks, nevertheless, as if Britain's loss is about to become Canada's gain as he returns to the country where he has guided Canada's wheelchair athletes to 119 medals in seven Paralympics, most notably Canadian Chantal Petitclerc, who took five golds at both the Athens and Beijing Games.

And don't bet against him being effective again in a Paralympic or Olympic arena. As he said in 2009: "I'm competitive in everything I do."

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. To follow him on Twitter click here.