Toni Minichiello calls for Tokyo Olympics to be suspended to 'protect integrity of sport'

Minichiello coached 2012 Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill
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Toni Minichiello, the man who coached Jessica Ennis-Hill to Olympic glory, has called for this summer’s Tokyo Games to be postponed in order to “protect the integrity of the sport”.

Minichiello was Ennis-Hill’s coach for her entire career from the age of 13, and helped her win Olympic gold in London in 2012 and silver in Rio four years later.

The Tokyo Games are due to begin in late July and organisers are firm in their insistence they will go ahead. However, pressure is mounting on the IOC to postpone the event as athletes around the world see fixtures cancelled, while those in the worst affected areas are struggling to train with facilities on lockdown.

Writing in The Times, Minichiello, who still coaches several athletes including Ireland’s Olympic hopeful Kate O’Connor, added his voice to the calls for a suspension.

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"This week the English Institute of Sport here in Sheffield was closed down - that's where we use the indoor track and the weights room,” he wrote. “Added to that, Sheffield Hallam University has shut off access to its outdoor track. It means we're kind of stuffed.

"One of [my athletes has] a garage that is now set up as a home gym, but for outdoor work our only option is running hills in the park. It's far from ideal, and from what I'm hearing and reading the issues we are facing because of the coronavirus pandemic are not uncommon across international sport.

"Already it feels to me like we need to postpone the Olympic Games. I appreciate how difficult that might be for the organisers; it's a massive headache given the logistics involved. But this is also extremely difficult for all the athletes out there, as well as the coaches.

"At some point, those in power need to realise that such disrupted preparation will affect the integrity of the sport. Take a sprinter. They need proper competition. They need high-level races, with all the pressure that brings, to get them into shape for an event as important as the Olympic Games. You can't recreate that pressure environment in a training session."

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