Omar McLeod is now a member of the Olympic training group run by Petros Kyprianou and based at the Episcopal School in Jacksonville, Florida. Last week McLeod, 27, who was a part of the Tumbleweed group since 2019, told athletes in the group that he was leaving.
However, the 2016 Olympic 110m hurdles champion gave no indication of why he had decided to leave or where he intended to go. His agent Mario Bassani declined to shed any light on the move which apparently took many by surprise.
As it turns out, the 2017 World Champion did not move too far away as Kyprianou shed light on his destination with a post on social media on Monday.
“Welcome to the group Omar @_warrior_child_!. Very excited to take this journey with you! Very thankful to @episcopaleagles for helping create this Olympic training group. What a great place to work at…”
Kyprianou joined the coaching staff at the University of Georgia in 2008 as an assistant coach, eventually becoming head coach in 2015. During his time there he won several awards while leading UGA to 11 top-four NCAA finishes in the last five seasons.
In 2017, he was named Women Outdoor Coach of the Year. In 2018, he won the NCAA Indoor Women’s title as well as the Men’s Outdoor title, which resulted in him winning the awards of Women’s Indoor Coach of the Year and the Men’s Outdoor Coach of the Year.
However, despite his success there, reports emerged in May 2021 that Kyprianou planned to leave Georgia when his contract expired in June that year.
The Athens Banner-Herald reported that in 2020, he turned down a multi-year extension offered by then-athletic director Greg McGarity and instead took a one-year extension.
In September, News4Jax reported that Kyprianou had joined the coaching staff at the Episcopal School of Jacksonville as the director of sports performance, a rare position in high school athletics.
Among the athletes he coached at UGA were Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, USA triple jump champion, Kenturah Orji and Jamaican Olympian Chanice Porter.
He has also coached the likes of British heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, St Lucia’s Levern Spencer, Maicel Uibo, Lynna Irby and rising sprinter/long jumper Matthew Boling.