King mulls Wales switch

Olympic cycling gold medallist Dani King is contemplating competing for Wales at next year’s Commonwealth Games.

The 26-year-old won team pursuit gold at London 2012 and is a three-time world champion in the discipline, but has focused on the road since 2014, when she represented England at her only prior Commonwealth Games. King says she meets the qualification criteria. She is now based in Wales, while riding for the American Cyclance squad, and in October is marrying a Welshman in Matt Rowe, brother of Team Sky cyclist Luke.

“It is a possibility. It’s still being decided,” Southamptonborn King said. Former Olympic gold medal winner Jessica Ennis-Hill remains hopeful London’s world championships will not be tarnished by doping but warned any problems will not disappear overnight.

The 2012 Olympic heptathlon champion wants a clean summer as she prepares to collect her third world championship gold.

Ennis-Hill is due to receive heptathlon gold from Daegu 2011 after she was upgraded from silver when Tatyana Chernova was stripped of her title last November following a doping offence.

Jo Pavey is also in line to receive a 10,000 metres world championship bronze from 2007 after she moved up from fourth last month when Turkish athlete Elvan Abeylegesse retrospectively failed a doping test.

She is due to join EnnisHill at a special ceremony in London in August and Ennis-Hill, who retired last year, hopes others will avoid their long wait.

“We have made massive steps to becoming a cleaner sport in the past year but there’s a lot that needs to be done,” she said.

“It’s not something that’s going to happen in a short amount of time.

“Hopefully we have a fantastic world championships and we don’t have this case of three, four or five years down the line where people are having medals stripped.”

Jessica Ennis-Hill