Britain’s Jessica Ennis-Hill competes in the women’s heptathlon javelin throw during the athletics competitions of the 2016 Summer Olympics at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016.
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After two days of see-saw competition Thiam went into the final event with a lead of 142 points, which equated to around nine seconds.
Ennis-Hill ran hard from the front to finish well clear but Thiam dug deep to come in just over seven seconds behind, a second inside her personal best, and good enough to take gold.
The 2012 champion was trumped by the slender margin of 35 points, despite beating Thiam by nearly seven and a half seconds in the concluding 800 metres. It made me emotional.
She said: “It’s so hard to find the words to describe this”. She had to be consoled on the in-field by Ennis-Hill who went on to take the world crown.
“I knew I had to beat her (Thiam) by 10 seconds in the 800m”.
“I’ve got to make a decision whether this is my last heptathlon or not, but I’m so proud of what I’ve achieved over the past few years”, said Ennis-Hill.
While she will undoubtedly be disappointed not to have defended her title, Ennis-Hill’s name will remain etched in Olympic history following her triumphant 2012 win. I am pleased I went from fourth back into a medal position but bronze is not good enough for me.
Having clocked 12.84 in the 100m hurdles to start her campaign off in winning style, Ennis-Hill followed that up with 1.89m in the high jump, 13.86m in the shot put and 23.49 in the 200m to lead overnight before 6.34m in the long jump, 46.06m in the javelin and finally 2:09.07 in the 800m. “You can tell that everyone was giving 100% to get to the finish line first and I could not be prouder right now”.
“I was like “oh god that’s so much”, she said. I knew she was running for that gold medal.
But so improved had Thiam’s performances been in this competition that there was a sense she would not allow the opportunity to slip.
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Just 20 minutes earlier, t he women’s eight – Katie Greves, Melanie Wilson, Frances Houghton, Polly Swann, Jessica Eddie, Olivia Carnegie-Brown, Karen Bennett, Zoe Lee and cox Zoe de Toledo – won a silver – Team GB’s first ever Olympic medal in the event.
