24 November 2010

Toni Minichiello will step away from his duties as National Event Coach for Combined Events in order to concentrate fully on Jessica Ennis and her preparations for London 2012.

The move, which sees him take up a full time Olympic Coach role at UKA, allows him to give 100% focus to his group, which of course includes the World Outdoor and Indoor and European Champion Ennis at such a crucial period.

Minichiello will be the second Olympic Coach at UKA, with the other being Lloyd Cowan, coach to Olympic Champion Christine Ohuruogu and Commonwealth and European Champion Andy Turner. The role enables both coaches to dedicate all of their coaching time to the performance agenda of winning medals.

Kevin Tyler, UKA’s Strategic Head of Coaching and Development said: "This is absolutely the right move for Toni and Jessica at this time and something we have worked with them to achieve. The National Event Coach for Combined Events is a vital role within our coach development structure but so is coaching one of our leading athletes and this gives Toni the chance to coach full time. We will come to a conclusion on the NEC role in the coming weeks to ensure we can continue the coach education work and event development work in this area that is so important to the future of our sport."

Toni Minichiello added: "I am delighted that UKA have supported Jessica’s preparations in this way and enabled me to turn my full attention to her and my group. The event development side of things is fantastic and I believe we are in good shape now to really push forward in this and coach education, but with just 611 days to go until the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics it is important that I can focus on Jessica’s preparations for that."