Britain's medal drought

Coe, a double Olympic 1500m champion, said there was a dearth of quality coaches in this country.

And he suggested it might be time to recruit top coaches from overseas.

"I'm not sure there are enough coaches in the system that can take young talent and consistently get them into the top five in the world," he said.

"It isn't easy and doesn't come cheaply but I think we have lost some of the ability in track and field and an awful lot of the skills that we had coaching-wise from 20 years ago.

"We may be at the point where we have to bring in some top coaches to kick start this."

Coaching is just part of the issue. We need to promote the sport to get young people involved in the first instance From Mark Exley Have your say on Five Live

A host of so-called "stars" have failed to perform in Helsinki, and anything less than two medals, of whatever colour, would make this Britain's worst World Championships ever.

Coe, who masterminded London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympics, said one of the aims was to have a host of home-grown athletes challenging for medals in seven years' time.

But, speaking to the BBC in Helsinki, he added: "Judging by the last few days that is going to be a tall order.

"The optimistic line is that out of the European Junior Championships we had some very good performances.

I don't think this is an issue about lottery funding Lord Coe

"But it's the toughest period in any athlete's career, to take them from being a promising junior into the senior ranks and then on.

"That's the big test but they've got to be with world-class coaches."

Coe denied suggestions that lottery funding was providing some of our athletes with an easy ride.

"I don't think this is an issue about lottery funding," he said.

"It's about coming to these championships in peak form and really making sure that the work that you've done pays off, perhaps only over the space of one hour. That's how fine preparation is.

"I don't think we're putting too much pressure on athletes.