Toni Minichiello calls for more drug testing in athletics

Jessica Ennis-Hill's coach Toni Minichiello has called for more drug testing in athletics globally.

The coach of the Olympic and two-time world heptathlon champion believes if the authorities are serious about beating the cheats, elite athletes in all sports need to be tested once a month, every month.

His comments come after the IOC announced this week that it found 31 athletes from the 2008 Beijing Olympics had failed drug tests after 454 targeted samples were retested. A further 250 samples from London 2012 have also been retested with the results, adverse or otherwise, due to be revealed next week.

"Jess has been tested three times in the last six weeks," Minichiello told Sky Sports News HQ.

"Can all other top athletes say they have been tested that much? The top 30 athletes in all sports (including football and rugby) should be routinely tested - 12 times a year, once every month, so that it can cover in and out of competition testing."

Minichiello voiced frustration that while recent announcements from the IOC and WADA were welcome, more needs to be done against dope cheats. He acknowledged that testing on such a scale is not easy and is expensive, but that perhaps a percentage of money from sponsors and broadcasters given to all sports should be earmarked for anti- doping.

Meanwhile, Ennis-Hill has spoken of her frustration as an athlete. "What this all does is distract me from what I'm trying to do," she explained. "I can't let myself (when competing) look at other athletes around me and wonder if they are clean. If I do, then I've no chance as I can't be focused."

The pair again voiced concern over Russian heptathlete Tatyana Chernova, who won gold at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu ahead of Ennis-Hill, who took silver.

Chernova was banned in 2013 after retesting of samples from the 2009 World Championship found the Russian to have been doping.

Her results from August 15, 2009 to August 14, 2011 were annulled and she was suspended for two years from July 22, 2013. On March 25, 2015, the IAAF filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, questioning the selective disqualification of the suspension periods of six other athletes disqualified about the same time.

Chernova's case also involves strange gaps in her suspension periods, including opening up her eligibility two weeks before the World Championship gold medal and initiating another disqualification period less than two weeks after she won the Universiade gold medal.

Ennis-Hill and Minichiello are still awaiting a decision from CAS regarding Chernova. Ennis-Hill said: "We're still waiting. It's not something I think about every day, but I would like a decision."

Minichiello was a little more outspoken: "As far as I am concerned, Jessica Ennis-Hill is a three-time world champion. I don't need a piece of paper to tell me that."