Jessica Ennis-Hill’s former Olympic gold-winning coach Toni Minichiello ‘suspended by UK Athletics

The former coach of Team GB legend Jesscia Ennis-Hill has reportedly been suspended this week by UK Athletics.

Toni Minichiello worked with Ennis-Hill from when she was 13-years-old, and guided her to Olympic medal glory in both London 2012 and Rio 2016.

Now, Minichiello – who also works as a pundit for the BBC – has been suspended after becoming subject of a number of complaints, according to the Times.

Ennis-Hill took gold under Minichiello in her home Olympics, before later going on to secure silver in Brazil.

During their time working together she also won four world championships and was regarded as the dominant female athlete in her field. 

UK Athletics declined to comment when approached by Sportsmail on Wednesday.

Minichiello, 55, has found himself in hot water in the past, after he was issued with an official written warning about his conduct as a coach in 2017.

This came after he was accused of verbally abusing a female athlete he had previously coached.

UK athletics at the time held a case management group meeting to consider ‘an allegation of misconduct (verbal abuse)’ against him, which was later deemed ‘not subject to any further appeal procedures by either side.’

In February of this year, the Sheffield-based coach – who is also the coaching representative on the UKA members’ council and the chair of British basketball – announced that he had joined forces with Ennis-Hill to guide the career of the highly promising heptathlete Niamh Emerson.

The 22-year-old Emerson, from Shirland, has already won gold at the IAAF World junior championships and a double gold at the Commonwealth youth games.