Australia coach Charlesworth bows out on top

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia's Ric Charlesworth has decided to step down as head coach of the national men's hockey team after leading them to the World Cup title on Sunday.





A giant in the sport, five-time Olympian Charlesworth won a silver medal as a player at the 1976 Montreal Olympics before coaching the Australian women's team to back-to-back gold medals at the 1996 Atlanta Games and at Sydney in 2000.

Charlesworth, who also won four World Cups with both the men's and women's teams, had planned to step down after the Glasgow Commonwealth Games starting next month.

"I have thought about it a lot. The high point of my year was the World Cup," the Perth-born 62-year-old said in a statement.

"The team will be moving on and it's my personal decision - I don't want to be packing up and away for another three weeks."

A former first class cricketer for Western Australia and a Member of Parliament, Charlesworth's coaching nous has been in high demand, leading to a role as a high performance manager for New Zealand cricket among various other consultancies.

As Hockey Australia searches for a successor, he will continue to prepare the Australian men for another month before they leave for Glasgow, where they will bid for a fifth successive gold medal in the July 23 - Aug. 4 Games.

(This story has been refiled to fix typo in lead, no additional changes to text)





(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)


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