Britain's new performance director Michael Scott has formed a Leadership Group with coaches Ben Titley (Loughborough University) and Fred Vergnoux (City of Edinburgh) to lead the national team from trials to Olympic Games in the wake of the departures of Bill Sweetenham and Ian Turner at the helm in the past six months.

'The goal of this Leadership Group is to effectively drive our preparations from the trials (British Championships) to the Games and while we're at the Olympics themselves,' Scott said in a statement. 'Both Titley and Vergnoux have a proven track record of achieving impressive international results. At the World Championships last year, both had athletes achieving podium finishes and Titley has been Head Women's Coach for a number of years. This group will ensure we maximise our performance outcomes and will be well supported by Director of World Class Programmes and former national youth coach John Atkinson to lessen the impact on their individual coaching programme duties.'

Turner's group at Loughborough will be taken by Dave McNulty, who has done a grand job with 400m freestyler Joanne Jackson in Derwentside in recent years. McNulty will join the national base at Loughborough after Britain's trials in the first week of April. 'McNulty is an experienced coach who has worked closely with the Loughborough group on many camps,' said Scott. 'He's an ideal choice and it will be a fantastic opportunity for both him and the swimmers.'

Scott's choices match the names on a list of those that Sweetenham had tipped as being future leaders of Britain's programme.

British Swimming will advertise next month for a full-time replacement for Turner as Head Coach to the national team but the successful candidate will not take up the role until after Beijing 2008.