How far Ennis throws during the season is crucial to her chances in winning Olympic gold – with season's best distances having the deciding vote on whether a heptathlete competes in Pool A or Pool B during competition. Last season, after failing to throw further than 44.81m, Ennis was consigned to Pool B at the world championships, isolated from the best throwers as well as the eventual gold medal winner, Tatyana Chernova.
"I don't think it helped going out into an empty stadium in the second pool," said Minichello, describing the scene in Daegu when Ennis attempted her javelin throw as "an empty stadium, British journalists, me and about six other people".
"Her competitors had already gone. [Tatyana] Chernova threw 46m, then 52m then 46m. If you go out and see Chernova throw 46m, then you respond a couple of people later and throw 44m it's like: 'Oh OK.' You can respond to somebody but it kind of spoiled it."
Minichello admitted that he had put in phone calls to the Games' organising committee to push for a change in the organisation of the heptathlon, which he believes is "ridiculous".
"It would be the same as Usain Bolt runs a race on his own and logs a time, then everyone else runs and tries to beat that time. It's ridiculous, it's not competitive … the Olympics is about being head to head. The way the rules currently stand it's kind of being watered down. There's got to be a much better way of delivering that to the public, the IAAF are always talking about making it more attractive but it couldn't have been any less attractive in Daegu."
A change to the structure of the competition is unlikely. Instead Ennis will work on improving her season's best to around 46m – her personal best is 46.71m – and then hoping it is enough to earn her a place in the premier group at the Olympic Games. Ennis next competes at the Yorkshire Championships on 12-13 May, followed by the Powerade Great City Games in Manchester on 20 May before heading out to Götzis in Austria at the end of the month to compete against the world's best heptathletes.
