Ennis-Hill landed an early psychological blow on Canada’s Brianne Theisen-Eaton with an impressive 100m hurdles victory.
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In what is her strongest event in the heptathlon, Johnson-Thompson produced a huge leap for 198cm for 1211 points to claim a British record and top spot of the completion after two events with 2264 points.
Britain’s Ennis-Hill reclaimed the lead from Belgian Nafissatou Thiam with a 200-metre run in 23.49 seconds, to Thiam’s 25.10.
If there had been a roof on the stadium it would have come off as flag waving Brits screamed “Go Jess, Go Jess” and could nearly hear the same all over Britain, as the country stayed up until after 3am to will her on.
Jessica Ennis-Hill has hinted she could retire after narrowly failing to defend her Olympic gold medal.
But Ennis-Hill called Friday a “mixed day”, expressing disappointment in her shot put and 200m performances. Some people allow pressure to engulf them. “Olympic champion – it still sounds so big when I say it”.
The Sheffield athlete lay on 5,013 points, with team-mate Katarina Johnson-Thompson up to third on 4,967 after leaping out to 6.51m.
Ennis-Hill is also looking to become the first British woman to retain an Olympic title in athletics.
Both looked nervous: Ennis-Hill slapped her hamstrings and shook her shoulders, trying to release the tension, Thiesen-Eaton managing only the thinnest of smiles. The heptathlon is as much mentally draining as it is physically draining, and Ennis-Hill has certainly been through the ringer of the years – she’s had a lot thrown at her.
Ennis-Hill needed to beat Nafissatou Thiam by 10 seconds in the 800m heat to stand a chance of winning gold.
Instead she geared up for the Games in Europe – she declined to say where, only that it was “nothing glamorous or exciting” – in order to minimise the amount of time she would have to spend away from Reggie.
“I’m disappointed with my performance, I should have done better”, said the Liverpool athlete. “I’m finding my last power in finishing, the last 100m”. I think I’m in a position to control the end of my races. World Championship silver medallist Brianne Theisen-Eaton is fifth (2,151). “I keep hearing all these little bits of stats flying around but I see it as a massive challenge for me”.
“There was a lot of pushing and shoving, but it was nice to get that back straight in nice and smooth and not be boxed in”.
“I think it’s a mix of thinking back to the last few years”, she said.
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She could, though, have been so much better placed but for a awful shot showing. “I’m just so emotional and yeah, I’ve just got to make a decision as to whether this is my last heptathlon or not”. Every time I ran he was going: “‘Mummy: “go, go, go'”.
