The head of UK Athletics, Neil Black, is to quit at the end of this month after paying the price for his longstanding support of the banned US coach Alberto Salazar and his failure to hit his medal target at the recent World Athletics Championships.

It is understood that Black was not officially sacked, but after seven years it appears that both sides accepted that it was time for a change.

Black looked desperately downbeat in Doha after Britain won five medals and admitted he was considering his position. When pressed on Sunday about his future, however, he made it clear that his intention was to stay on for the Tokyo Olympics.

Less than 48 hours later his departure was confirmed in a terse 44-word statement. “UK Athletics have announced that Neil Black will leave his role as performance director at the end of October.”

“Neil will commence a detailed handover with performance staff until his departure and will fulfil his role supporting Mo Farah at this weekend’s Chicago Marathon.”

The question of his replacement is an urgent one given the Games are nine months away, and several people are expected to throw their names into the ring. The head of Scottish athletics, Steven Maguire, who has performed miracles with Britain’s relay squad and is well-liked by athletes, would be a frontrunner if he is willing to move back to Loughborough.

Another strong contender is Toni Minichiello, the former coach of Jessica Ennis-Hill. He will certainly have the backing of the grassroots but his reputation for straight-talking has not always endeared him to senior figures.

A third name under consideration will be Mike Cavendish, who worked under Black at UK Athletics and has impressed as performance director at British Triathlon. Peter Eriksson, a former head coach of the UK Athletics Paralympic programmes, and Tommy Yule, the head of British weightlifting, have also been mentioned as contenders.

The recruitment process is yet to start and in the short-term UK Athletics may decide to appoint an interim performance director, with Steve Paulding, the director of UK Athletics’ national performance centre, a possibility. Whoever gets the role will join an organisation in turmoil, with no chief executive for more than a year since the departure of Niels de Vos – although his replacement Zara Hyde Peters takes over soon – and an inexperienced new chairman, Chris Clark.

Black becomes the first figure at UKA to pay the price for a relationship with Salazar – who was a performance consultant at UK Athletics between 2013 and 2017 – and he may not be the last.

While there was no suggestion of wrongdoing on his part, Black gave his full backing to the American even after a BBC Panorama documentary in June 2015 suggested that Salazar had violated anti-doping laws, including using testosterone on his sons to see how much would flag a positive test.

At the Beijing world championships two months later, Black confirmed that Salazar, who coached Farah between late 2010 and 2017, was still completely welcome in the team hotel, which raised eyebrows given a Usada investigation into the Nike Oregon Project, run by Salazar, was under way at that point.

Previously, Black had hailed the American as a genius, adding that there was “total trust, total belief, total respect” between Salazar and the governing body.

In fairness to Black, in 2015 an independent UK Athletics oversight committee led by the former athletes Jason Gardener, Sarah Rowell and Anne Wafula Strike, found there was “no reason to be concerned” by Salazar’s link with Farah and cleared the runner to continue working at the Nike Oregon Project. Gardener and Rowell remain on the UK board.

The committee’s judgment has been questioned given Salazar’s former assistant coach Steve Magness, one of the 10 whistleblowers who went Usada to reveal their concerns with Salazar, called the review a sham.

Like most of the previous incumbents, Black leaves a mixed legacy. Few doubt he was an excellent physiotherapist before moving up the ranks at UK Athletics to take the top job. However, he was criticised for his singular focus on medals – and Farah – at the expense of building a stronger coaching infrastructure for elite athletes.