Ennis-Hill’s scored of 6,775 points was her best since London 2012, but she could not live with Thiam, who produced five personal bests from her seven events.
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21-year-old Thiam took a commanding lead after superb scores in the long-jump and javelin events, leaving Ennis-Hill needing to record a new personal best in the final 800m event to stand any chance of overhauling her.
Thiam, who combines athletics with university studies in geography, clocked 13.56sec in the 100m hurdles, jumped a best of 1.98m in the high jump, managed 14.91m in the shot put and timed 25.10sec in the 200m during the first day of action.
The final event is the 800m, in which the British pair have the advantage on past performance. It begins at 02:50 BST.
The champion from the 2012 London Olympic Games and pre-Games favourite, Ennis-Hill, 30, finished with a total point tally of 6,775 to beat Canada’s Brianne Theisen-Eaton into the silver-medal position by 122 points.
JESSICA ENNIS-HILL ran a storming 800 metres – but had to settle for Sheffield silver last night.
Meanwhile, Abergavenny-born cyclist Becky James added another medal – a silver – in the women’s Keirin.
There was disappointment for Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson as she missed out on a medal, finishing sixth after a poor javelin throw.
But despite the mother-of-all battles in Rio’s Olympic Stadium she finished with 6775 points just behind Belgian victor Nafissatou Thiam who clinched gold with 6810pts.
Justin Gatlin of the U.S., considered Bolt’s main rival for the gold medal, recorded the fastest time of the heats with 10.01 seconds.
He said after the race: “I’ve won an Olympic gold for three of my children”. Late nights, then packing up, eating and preparing for the next day, she said she was working on between 4-5 hours’ sleep for the final day of the heptathlon. She opened with 36.36m, some way off her PB of 42.01m from 2015, and couldn’t improve. Fouling in the next round, she finished with 33.42m to add to her 13.48 100m hurdles, 1.98m United Kingdom high jump record, 11.68m shot put, 23.26 200m, 6.51m long jump and 2:10.47 800m as she wound up sixth overall.
Cyclist Laura Trott also made history on day eight of the Games, becoming the first British woman to win three gold medals after her success in the women’s team pursuit.
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After 11.08 in her heat, Britain’s Desiree Henry had again come close to her 11.06 PB in the 100m semi-finals as she ran 11.09 for fourth.
