Talks ‘ongoing’ over new Minichiello role

Minichiello is the highest profile casualty of the governing body’s restructuring plan around a single High Performance Institute in Loughborough.

Neither Minichiello, named Coach of the Year in November, nor Ennis herself want to relocate from her hometown of Sheffield and, as he has no another Olympic or world medallists in his training group, Minichiello has not been offered the chance to continue to work with her there on a full-time salary. UKA confirmed discussions with Minichiello are still taking place and they hope to make an announcement soon, which is likely to see him operating in a new consultancy role on reduced terms to work specifically with Ennis.

“My job over the last four years was to coach Jessica Ennis and win global medals and I pretty much think I did that,” Minichiello told a national newspaper.

“That role no longer exists in that format so therefore there isn’t an employed situation for me. My position is always to support Jessica in terms of what’s she’s doing. I’ve made a promise to her that I’ll continue to support her and I’ll try and do that.

“The downside about being a consultant means that I’ll have to find other ways of earning a living, which will take me away from the track and from coaching.”