Jessica Ennis, centre, winning the women's 100m hurdles event during the Great CityGames in Manchester. Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/PA Jessica Ennis's coach has hit out at what he termed "distractions" from senior figures from within UK Athletics in the buildup to the Olympics.Toni Minichiello, 45, who has coached the 2012 poster girl since the heptathlete was 11 years old, revealed that a "high‑ranking person" – he would not say exactly who – had suggested "that she's fat and she's got too much weight".Minichiello dismissed the criticism, and added that both Ennis's weight and body fat percentage had remained constant in recent times. He said that his role, as part of "Team Jennis", was to create "a bubble of common sense around her", helping to deflect the ... Continue reading →

Sophie Williams carries the Olympic flame between Gloucester and Hartpury on day six of the relay. From tomorrow, the torch will travel around Wales for a week. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA It has certainly fired the imagination of the English public but the question of whether the Olympic flame – and the Games in general – will be embraced across the whole of the UK will begin to be answered on Friday when the torch is carried into Wales.Over the next week the flame will be taken to the summit of Snowdon, carried on the back of a Welsh cob horse and transported along an aqueduct on a hand-drawn boat.All excellent photo-opportunities but the deeper issue will be whether the people of Wales see the Olympics ... Continue reading →