Jessica Ennis-Hill has been crowned the heptathlon world champion just 13 months after giving birth.
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If I had come here and come away with a bronze medal I would have been so, so happy.
Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katarina Johnson-Thompson are set to battle it out for World Championship glory after an impressive opening day from the British heptathletes in Beijing.
Not only did Olympian Jessica Enni-Hill jump into her strict training regime again, but she then achieved super human status by winning a gold medal just one year on from becoming a mum. This time previous year I’d just had my son and now I’m world champion.
And the climax that the 800m should have been became for the same reason a jog around two laps of the track to save Johnson-Thompson’s legs for the long jump.
“I would like to think I’ve got the goods as well so the 800m could be really special”.
But nothing should detract from Ennis-Hill’s extraordinary effort given that as recently as November she was unable to lift a 20-kilo bar above her head as her body had still to recover from the rigours of childbirth.
“This has definitely been the hardest year ever”.
In silver medal position at the start of the second day of competition, Johnson-Thompson, 22, was immediately confronted by a dilemma.
Ennis-Hill will go head-to-head with Katarina Johnson-Thompson for the first time since her team-mate emerged as a genuine rival to her heptathlon crown, with Ennis-Hill keen to show she is capable of mounting a creditable defence of her Olympic title.
“I’ve always said don’t underestimate Jess and that she will come back and do herself justice”.
It began with a tentative spin on an exercise bike in the privacy of her garage and ended with gold medal glory in front of the watching world, writes Alex Spink in Beijing.
“This time past year I’d just had my son and now I am world champion”.
“Going to London was incredibly hard and there were different pressures and challenges”.
The young Briton had nearly fouled out of another of her strongest events, the high jump, on the first morning, only clearing the relatively modest 1.80m at the third and final attempt. At that point, it was all or nothing for me.
With only the 800 metres to go, Ennis-Hill needed only to finish within six seconds of Nadine Broersen, of the Netherlands, and Brianne Theisen-Eaton, of Canada, to win the gold.
I want to save my legs’. I couldn’t compete without knowing.
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Ennis-Hill gained the competitors with a season-best 6,669 factors, main from the second via the seventh occasions.
