31 July 2013

British Athletics has today confirmed that Jessica Ennis-Hill (coach: Toni Minichiello), Olympic heptathlon Champion, will not compete at the World Championships in Athletics in Moscow 10-18 August.

The Sheffield-based athlete has had Achilles and heel pain since the start of June, and together with her coach and medical team decided that time has run out to get her into the position to be as competitive as they would like in just two weeks.

“Up until now we have been focusing on managing the pain so I can train and get myself in shape to go out there to win in Moscow – which has meant not focusing on finding a cure for the injury. The time has now come to stop chasing fitness and look to cure the problem,” said Ennis-Hill.

“I am so glad I got to compete in London last weekend as it gave me a clear picture of where I am – and it is definitely not where I want to be both regarding pain and also form.

“To say I am gutted is an understatement – no athlete likes to miss the opportunity to compete at a major Championships – they don’t come round that often,” she added.

Toni Minichiello, helped her make the final decision to withdraw from the team.

“It’s not been the easiest or simplest of decisions. The pain management did improve, and Jessica was able to compete in London, but the next few days have not seen enough improvement that would have made completing the two day, seven events of the Heptathlon possible.

“I’ve also had to consider if competing at the world championships would caused further damage, making any rehab more difficult. There are nine global medals up for grabs over the next three years not including Moscow. So a long term view has been taken.” he said.

On the next steps Minichiello, added:

“The next aim will be to unload the Achilles for a week or so and during this time gather more opinions about all possible recovery strategies. After which I will pull the team together to examine the way forward, but also examine how it happened in the hope we can avoid this going forward. The aim will be that any recovery process will make an indoor season possible in 2014.”

Performance Director Neil Black said:

“I know this has been a tough decision for Toni and Jess but I feel it is the right one with the long term view. They’ve worked hard to bring her to a point where she was close to competing and it was great to see her in action last weekend, but no-one wants to see her competing in pain, and we look forward to seeing her wear the GB & NI vest again in 2014.”