"When I look at the World Athletics Competition Performance Ranking,” says Walter Weber Sporting Director of the annual Hypomeeting Götzis “I see that Hypomeeting is ‘only’ in third place But only Combined Events at the Olympic Games and World Championships are better than at Götzis.” The annual celebration of combined events in the small Austrian town of Götzis at the end of May provides a masterclass in how to showcase world-class athletics Every detail of the meeting is designed to create the conditions for athletes to perform at their best with no requirement for ill-thought-through gimmicks to generate artificial theatre When that singular focus on the athlete is enhanced by an understanding of how to narrate the ebb and flow of the multis and combined with a relaxed environment for fans the result is the richest two days of athletics on the competition calendar “The best athletics event you will ever attend,” former Telegraph athletics correspondent Ben Bloom wrote in AW a few weeks ago all but three Olympic and World champions have competed at Götzis For current Olympic decathlon champion Damian Warner of Canada Warner won his Olympic title in the sequestered and his victory in Götzis that year was also muted given the limited attendance due to public health measures Warner is bringing his extended support system to Austria “Almost every year for the past 10 years I’ve come home raving to my family about Götzis,” Damian recalls “About how this small town transforms into this amazing competition with an unparalleled atmosphere and how the fans at Götzis are more knowledgeable and dedicated to the decathlon/heptathlon than anywhere else in the world “I want my family to experience this amazing atmosphere and this love for combined events first hand From day one I have been welcomed to Götzis with open arms and treated with love and respect I have met so many incredible people over the years and developed relationships with people there I hope that I have the opportunity to compete in Götzis every year “In 2012 I was looking for a new sport after my hockey career It was around then I first learned about the decathlon,” he says “I went onto YouTube and was met by [Roman] Šebrle’s world record decathlon at Götzis in 2001 I’m very excited and incredibly grateful to get this opportunity.” » This is an abridged version of a feature that appears in the May issue of AW magazine, which you can buy here » Gabby Pieraccini is a combined events writer and analyst, as well as the founder of Decathletes of Europe – decathletesofeurope.co.uk  Graham Williamson's sons in charity run following cancer scare Home E-Paper Traffic Cameras Classifieds British track coach banned for life for sexual misconductby FILE - Toni Minichiello looks on during the women's heptathlon at the Hypo Meeting in Goetzis The coach who helped British track and field star Jessica Ennis-Hill to Olympic and world titles was effectively banned for life Tuesday for misconduct including sexually physical behaviour with athletes over a 15-year period Minichiello was found guilty by a tribunal of four charges that amounted to “gross breaches of trust,” the U.K LON­DON (AP) — The coach who helped British track and field star Jes­si­ca En­nis-Hill to Olympic and world ti­tles was ef­fec­tive­ly banned for life Tues­day for mis­con­duct in­clud­ing “sex­u­al­ly phys­i­cal be­hav­iour” with uniden­ti­fied ath­letes over a 15-year pe­ri­od Tony Minichiel­lo was found guilty by a tri­bunal of four charges that amount­ed to “gross breach­es of trust,” the U.K Minichiel­lo’s mis­con­duct against ath­letes in­clud­ed un­want­ed touch­ing “in­ap­pro­pri­ate sex­u­al ref­er­ences and ges­tures” and “ag­gres­sive be­hav­iour “They con­sti­tute gross breach­es of trust by Mr Minichiel­lo which have had se­vere con­se­quences for the men­tal health and men­tal well-be­ing of the ath­letes un­der his charge,” U.K It thanked and praised ath­letes who gave ev­i­dence against the British coach It was un­clear if En­nis-Hill had been a wit­ness Minichiel­lo made his rep­u­ta­tion guid­ing hep­tathlon star En­nis-Hill to three world ti­tles from 2009 to 2015 En­nis-Hill’s gold-medal per­for­mance at her home 2012 Lon­don Games was com­plet­ed on the so-called “Su­per Sat­ur­day” at the Olympic Sta­di­um that be­came part of British sport­ing lore She took sil­ver when de­fend­ing her ti­tle at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games Though the coach could not be sanc­tioned by track and field au­thor­i­ties be­cause his li­cense ex­pired dur­ing the pros­e­cu­tion he was ef­fec­tive­ly ex­pelled by the sport UKA has de­cid­ed that it will not en­ter­tain any fu­ture ap­pli­ca­tion made by Mr Minichiel­lo for a UKA coach li­cense in per­pe­tu­ity,” the British track body said Guardian Media is the premier provider of multimedia solutions and authoritative insight on news TBC Radio Network and The Big Board Company Send us an e-mail here or call us at +1-(868)-225-4465 / +1-(868)-235-5668