Athletics chief: Idowu’s gone missing

Phillips Idowu's bid to be fit for the Olympic triple jump took a fresh twist today with UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee revealing there has been no contact between the Londoner and his coach for two weeks.

Idowu has worked with Aston Moore in Birmingham since Beijing, relocating there from the capital to ensure he was in gold-medal contention for London.

But a nerve problem running from Idowu’s knee to his hip had put his hopes of a medal in jeopardy.

Since then, Idowu (above) has insisted he will be fit to compete while the British Olympic Association, which had asked to see his medical records, have since declared themselves satisfied with the state of his fitness.

But the lack of contact between athlete and coach is a cause for concern for van Commenee, who said: “I find it bizarre. Aston finds it bizarre. We have to deal with the situation as it is presented to us.

“First he has to show up and we don’t know when he is going to show up. When he shows up, where he sleeps, we have no idea.”

Idowu’s triple jump campaign gets under way with the qualifying rounds on Tuesday and the final next Thursday.