A MAN who helped changed the face of athletics worldwide over the last two decades has died suddenly, aged 45, on holiday in Australia.

Keighley-born Kim McDonald - himself a former county champion and international runner - found fame and fortune as a manager and agent when athletics left its amateur roots to become professional.

His McDonald International Manage-ment (KIM) represented many top names in the sport including Olympic gold medallists John Walker, of New Zealand, and Steve Ovett, nine-times New York Marathon winner Greta Waitz, Common-wealth champion Peter Elliott and women's world champions Sonia O'Sullivan and Liz McColgan.

He was also a key player in the emergence of many of the top Kenyan distance runners such as the great steeple-chaser Moses Kiptanui, two-miler Daniel Komen and Olympic 1500 metres champion Noah Ngeny.

McDonald - a former pupil of the old Bront School and Oakbank - died last week in a Brisbane hotel after suffering a heart attack.

He had been holidaying for a few days while working in Australia.

Highly respected on the world's athletics scene, the former Bingley Harrier was an outstanding runner as a child and went on to represent England at distance running.

He first rose to prominence as a 14 year old schoolboy at Oakbank, representing the county cross-country team as well as competing at Crystal Palace over 800 metres in the English schoolboys championships.

A contemporary was Olympic champion Sebastian Coe who was a rival at many championship meetings.

McDonald switched from Bingley to the Leeds City club in 1973 and competed again at the then home of British athletics in the 1974 AAA U20 championship.

Picked as a reserve for England's world cross-country junior men's team, he took up a scholarship at a university in Kentucky, USA.

His teaming up with coach Dennis Quinlan marked a fruitful spell which included the Northern 5000 metres title in 1978.

He clocked highly respectable mara-thon times in Manchester (two hours 19) in 1981 and in Miami (2.21) a year later. That year, 1982, also brought a Southern Counties 10,000m title, followed a year later by the Southern Counties 3000m title.

But McDonald made his greatest impact after hanging up his spikes in the mid-80s.

By the end of the 1990s his athletes had won 16 Olympic medals, 19 world championships and had broken world records at 1500m, mile, 2000m, 3000m, 3000m steeplechase, two miles, 5000m and 10,000m - in addition to 23 world cross-country titles, and on the road, world bests at 10k, 12k, 15k, 25k, 10 miles and half-marathon!

Family, friends and colleagues this week voiced their shock at his death, and paid tribute to his achievements.

International Association of Athletics Federation president Lamine Diack had recently nominated McDonald as his special advisor.

He said: "His death is tragic, particularly because of its sudden nature.

"I remember Kim as a young man full of life and enthusiasm. We had been friends for many years and I greatly appreciated the seriousness, honesty and passion he demonstrated as we worked together on the development of athletics in Africa.

"I am sure that the world athletics family, but especially the many athletes whose careers Kim followed with professionalism and true affection, feel with me the tragic loss of this great manager."

Rotherham's Peter Elliott, who went on to take the 1990 Commonwealth 1500m title while with KIM, first came into contact with him in 1985.

"Agents were taboo in the sport in those days," said Elliott.

"But I liked Kim; he was a fellow Yorkshireman and he started representing me and from 1988 he became my coach.

"During the purple patch of my career he was the man to steer me and I am indebted to him for that. He had a very good reputation within the sport and he was professional with a capital P. I just feel how sad it is that he should die alone in a hotel bedroom with no-one to help him.

"Athletics will not be the same without Kim McDonald. I just can't take in the news of his death," he said.

McDonald's former coach Dennis Quinlan, former Irish international runner and Oakbank teacher, praised his dedication to the sport.

"He was a very successful athlete, running, running 13 minutes 49 seconds for 5000m and under eight minutes for 3000m," said Quinlan, who installed McDonald as manager of his Bingley sports shop in the early 80s.

"Kim turned to managing athletes and made a successful business of that, organising training camps in the US, Australia and Kenya as well as coaching.

"He was a non-stop worker," he said.

McDonald still has family in Keighley and there will be a memorial service in the town, at a date to be announced. A funeral service is to be held in Tedding-ton, Middlesex, where he lived.

Tony Brown said his nephew was held in very high regard by everyone and was particularly noted for his more unorthodox coaching techniques.

"He was a real fitness fanatic and his death has come as a big shock," said Mr Brown.

"He was a very good distance runner but had to stop competing because of a knee injury.

"Kim left Keighley about 20 years ago but there will still be a lot of people in the town who remember him.

"He coached many top African runners and in the past couple of years or so had also helped some leading tennis players."

Mr Brown said it was not clear when the body would be flown back to this country.