Ennis-Hill regained her world heptathlon title at the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing just 13 months after the birth of her son, Reggie, while Bolt defied the naysayers and all known form to run down Justin Gatlin, the two-time doping offender, to hold on to his 100 metres crown. “This is my first major championships and I came out here extremely nervous today”, Bowie said after a quick heat time. “She’ll come back in the long jump here and I hope she gets a medal”.
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“I am lost for words, coming back here to the Bird’s Nest”.
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.
“It’s really hard but they’re definitely like that”, she said, holding her hands together level. “This time previous year I was having my son and now I am world champion, it’s an incredible feeling”, Ennis-Hill told the BBC.
Johnson-Thompson was deemed to have left a slight mark on the plasticine and following a failed appeal she was left distraught, but had to take part in the 800m to avoid being ruled out of the long jump on Thursday.
Ennis-Hill is now bookies’ favourite to claim the Sports Personality of the Year award, ahead of cyclist Chris Froome and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton. To have won the gold is better still. There were different pressures going into London 2012, but here juggling all my mummy duties has been even harder.
“I wanted to stay relaxed”.
Elsewhere, Britain’s Laura Muir came third in her 1500m semi-final – and was the third fastest qualififer – behind Ethiopian world record-holder Genzebe Dibaba and Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, comfortably securing herself a spot in Tuesday’s final.
Olympic glory in London when the poster girl of the Games was an achievement scarcely to be topped, but her progress since returning to competition in May has been rapid and raised hopes of a successful title defence in Rio next year.
“At that point, it was all-or-nothing for me and I had to give it my all”.
“The jump was measured”, she said.
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Johnson-Thompson’s frustration was one of few negatives for Britain on the second day of competition, with team captain Martyn Rooney leading by example. “We’re rivals and we want to better each other, but when she did that in the long jump my heart sank for her”. Me and Toni (trainer Antonio Minichiello) knew I was heading in the right direction, but we didn’t really ever talk about a gold medal. “I had to compete”.
