Johnson-Thompson finished fourth in the long jump at yesterday’s Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games in London, jumping 6.50 metres to finish ahead of the Olympic heptathlon champion by 13cm. When the Great Britain team selected to compete at the World Championships is announced on Tuesday she is be on the list but she and coach Toni Minichiello remained coy about whether she would take her seat on the plane.
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“I was a bit anxious about Beijing before this competition, so I’m really relieved that I came through it and there was no pain and problem”, she added. “I’m really happy with this weekend”, Ennis-Hill said.
‘I feel the training I’ve done over the past few weeks has made a big difference, ‘ said Ennis-Hill, ‘I didn’t expect to do as well in the hurdles. But that’s going to be the same in Beijing as well so I feel happy I’ve been able to race in this environment. I shall need to rest up after today and prepare for tomorrow (July 25). But Ennis-Hill will probably leave the decision about whether to go until Monday morning, hours before British Athletics meets to select its team for Beijing.
“It’s hard to read Toni, he’s been up and down about it and it’s going to be an interesting conversation”.
Her opening leap of 6.37m represented her furthest mark in this discipline for three years. “I went over on my ankle quite early in the season and I got through that and it was the same timetable”, she said. “I wouldn’t go, I’d just train, do some platform work and then move on next year towards Rio, which is the critical thing”.
“I would have said after the European Indoors that it was gold or nothing in Beijing but considering my build up, I’ve had a completely different season to what I’d hoped for, and any sort of medal would be an achievement, though obviously I really want the gold”. I know things can go wrong in the heptathlon, but if I feel I can contend for a silver medal and things go wrong and I come away with a bronze medal I’d be absolutely ecstatic with that performance.
The double Olympic champion strode to an imperious win in the 3,000m and then said: “It was fantastic to get the support I got, it was incredible, it just reminded me of 2012”.
Quite whether this was merely the ultimate poker face from Minichiello is unclear, as everything else would suggest that Ennis-Hill is ready, the question surely not whether she will go but what medal is attainable.
Her 100m hurdles run on Friday night was emphatic proof her speed has returned and her 200m, in a world-class field, also offered encouragement. “It’s the same preparation I had in Moscow”.
This was the first time Ennis-Hill and Johnson-Thompson had gone head to head since the former’s return to the sport and her younger rival urged her to go to Beijing. Three years ago she was a box carrier at the London Olympics, now Asher-Smith, 19, has someone taking care of her kit as she breaks records inside the same stadium.
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Kenya’s David Rudisha, back at the stadium where he won Olympic gold and broke the 800m world record, had to settle for second behind Botswana’s Nijel Amos.
