Ennis-Hill’s coach urges Coe to act on medal delay
LONDON: IAAF President Sebastian Coe must take action over the delay in presenting Jessica EnnisHill with her 2011 world championships gold medal, her former coach Toni Minichiello has said.
Briton Ennis-Hill, 31, was upgraded to a gold medal for the heptathlon event in 2011 after Russian winner Tatyana Chernova was stripped of her title in November for a doping violation.
However, Chernova has appealed her case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland and that means Coe and the sport’s world ruling body are currently unable to reallocate her medal.
An IAAF spokesman told Reuters that it was impossible to redistribute medals when cases remain in front of CAS.
“Everyone in athletics wants to see the right athletes with the right medal and we are working on a specific policy for the reallocation of medals,” the spokesman said.
“In the meantime we want to find the right moment to give athletes the recognition they missed out on and fans of the sport a chance to be part of that celebration wherever we can and if the athlete wants us to.
“We are currently looking at the Anniversary Games, the Diamond League events and the World Championship in London this summer as opportunities to recognise and redistribute medals once official requests are received and all appeal processes and other judicial process have concluded,” the spokesman added.
Coe had said that reallocated medals would be presented at the 2017 world championships in London and Minichiello was critical of the fact that date now looks hard to meet.
“Seb is on record saying athletes should not be getting their medals sent recorded delivery, so for them to miss an opportunity like this is very unfortunate... “Minichiello said.
“You talk tough, but where is the delivery on that toughness. You can say ‘we’re changing’, but things like this very quickly disintegrate any goodwill you have created.
“They should deal with the basics, and how you deal with infringements. It’s incredibly sad and frustrating. It’s six years now... The process needs to be much quicker. The people suffering from this are clean athletes.”
Retired Olympic champion Ennis-Hill also won the world title in 2009 and 2015. - Reuters