Gareth Southgate: England manager joins British coaching elite after earning prestigious qualification
The Three Lions boss was joined by rugby coach Steve Borthwick and Olympic swimming coach Mel Marshall
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England manager Gareth Southgate has become the first football coach to graduate from UK Sport's Elite Programme.
Southgate was part of the third cohort to complete the development programme and his classmates included England rugby sevens coach Simon Amor, England rugby union forwards coach Steve Borthwick and Olympic swimming champion Adam Peaty's coach Mel Marshall.
Previous graduates of the three-year course for the best high-performance coaches in the country include GB Boxing performance director Rob McCracken and former England cricket coach Andy Flower.
In a statement, Southgate said: "It has been a brilliant opportunity to build friendships with the other coaches and to share knowledge across the cohort.
"I am also the first person in football to be involved in this course so that is a real privilege.
"We have world-leading coaches in our country who have won Olympic and Paralympic medals so it has been great to tap into that knowledge and I will continue to do so in the future."
UK Sport covers the cost of the £60,000 course for coaches from funded sports, but the Football Association and Rugby Football Union would have met the costs for Southgate and Borthwick respectively.
The five other graduates on Tuesday were GB Boxing's Dave Alloway, GB para athletics head coach Paula Dunn, British Athletics' head of endurance Barry Fudge, Mark Ratcliffe from British Canoeing and GB Rowing's Peter Sheppard.
The group have been on several residential courses, including a stay at an army base in Salisbury in January when they were put through their paces by Serve On, a charity that helps communities during crises and international disasters.
UK Sport chair Dame Katherine Grainger said: "I was privileged to speak with the group as part of the programme and I was hugely impressed with the passion, engagement and commitment I saw from them all.
"Coaches are the crucial backbone of our high-performance system and this group will continue to provide world-class support and direction for their athletes, whilst using the knowledge they have shared and gained on the programme to keep making British coaching truly world-leading."
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