Minichiello claims Ennis-Hill was 'lightning in a bottle'
BySportsbeat
Published 16/10/2016 at 14:40 GMT
The man who knew Jess Ennis-Hill's athletic ability better than anyone, Toni Minichiello, has picked out her competitive spirit as the number one quality of the retired heptathlete.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
There has been no shortage of compliments handed to the 30-year-old mum of one since she announced her retirement from athletics this week, following her silver medal at the Rio Olympic Games.
Ennis-Hill won bronze in the Commonwealth Games ten years ago but went on to become a two-time world champion and won London 2012 Olympic gold, during a stellar career in the sport.
She called an end to that career earlier this week and Minichiello had plenty of kinds words to say about athlete he first met as a 13-year-old.
"Her best quality is her ability to be ultra competitive but be incredibly grounded and modest," he explained.
"She is critical of herself. She does not say 'look at me, the great I am'.
"She is modest and strives to be better and has an incredible work ethic. You could not ask for any more.
"She got her physicality from her parents and add that to the work ethic and competitive bit; bring all that together and you have lightning in a bottle."
Placing somebody with Ennis-Hill's achievements into an all-time list of British athletes is almost impossible, but her coach believes she surpasses even the great Daley Thompson.
"She is better than Daley, he never gave birth and came back and won, he trained and trained," Minichiello added.
"To balance her home life and do that makes her the best British athlete ever.
"For me, the highlight of her career wasn't London 2012, but coming back from pregnancy and winning the World Championship in Beijing in 2015.
"Number two would be coming back from three stress fractures in her foot and winning because that was potentially a career-threatening injury.
"The home Olympics was big, but in my perspective overcoming adversity was better."
Sportsbeat 2016
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement