The 30-year-old, who became a mother last year, is bidding to become only the third woman to retain an Olympic athletics title after giving birth. But having struggled with injury problems in the lead-up, gold was beyond her grasp, though she made it into the medals with her best performance of the year so far.
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“It’s very emotional”, Ennis-Hill said.
“I have got to go away now and make a big decision as to what I do”. “He knows what mummy does, he tries to copy what I do”.
Michael Rimmer qualified for the 800m semi-finals, but Elliot Giles, the European bronze medallist who has been troubled by hamstring issues, went out.
“I don’t want to cry”. “It’s celebrations not commiserations, ‘ she said”. It’s like, ‘Have you still got stuff in the basement?’ “It’s a tough event and I’ve done it for so long… so… we’ll see”.
She sobbed afterwards but insisted they were happy tears.
The Team GB men’s 4x100m medley relay team, led by newly-crowned Olympic champion Adam Peaty, are also in with a fantastic shout after finishing first in their heat, the women’s quartet will also race for a medal.
And in Rio the stage is set for history to repeat itself as the terrific trio of Jessica Ennis-Hill, Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford – who all won gold in the space of 46 minutes four years ago – are reunited by a quirk of the athletics scheduling. Now, though, there was only delight at a silver medal – and an acceptance that a narrow defeat by an athlete nine years her junior might just represent a changing of the guard. I might not do that event again, this event again.
Afterwards Ennis-Hill refused to say whether it would be her last event, but it certainly sounded like it might be. “When I came off from the javelin I had to speak to Toni [Minichiello, Ennis’s coach] and I said “what have I got to do?'”.
A group of 25 children, aged between six and 13, gathered in the cafe at the EIS Sheffield, where Ennis-Hill trains, to watch the athlete compete.
The Yorkshire athlete led after day one but was short of the distance she would have been hoping for in the long jump on the resumptipon on Saturday, as Thiam moved into the lead. “But I’m so proud of what I’ve achieved over the last few years”.
Between the two Britons are two 21-year-olds – Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam and Akela Jones of Barbados.
With just the 800m to go, and Ennis-Hill in second place, the heptathlete needed to win by 9.47 seconds.
Johnson-Thompson came back with the day’s fastest 200m to end the day fourth, 100 points off the pace. “I think generally everyone didn’t run great times so yep – a mixed day but obviously glad to be leading after the first day”.
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Minichiello told the BBC she should “take two or three months and work out exactly what you do want to do”.
