Life is different. I’ve had some time away from the sport, I’ve had injuries, got married, had my son, so life is very different, but really just a unique and incredible journey to this Olympics as well.
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Team GB’s Jessica Ennis-Hill has relinquished her Olympic title in the women’s heptathlon after a hard-fought battle with Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam.
It looks like being the final act of a glorious career for one of the finest athletes Great Britain has produced.
At first she could not lift weights above her head and the explosive power which makes her such a phenomenal athlete was sapped. I have so many years doing this sport and so many years at the top. I don’t want to cry’.
“He said, “10 seconds”, and I was like, “oh god that’s so much”, but I just thought I’m going to run hard like I always do at 800m and see what I can do”.
The defending champion, who is now guaranteed his third Olympic medal, will play either Rafael Nadal or Juan Martin Del Potro in the final on Sunday. “I want to make sure that it’s the right one”. It’s like, ‘Have you still got stuff in the basement?’ But her words and body language left little doubt.
“Going into the final round I definitely wasn’t as stressed as my family were at home”, he said.
“These two days have been really tough but I’m really proud”. I might not do that event again, this event again.
A month before Ennis-Hill won gold at London 2012, Thiam finished 14th at the World Junior Championships.
“I’m disappointed with my performance, I should have done better”, said the Liverpool athlete.
It was Trott’s third Olympic gold – the most by a British woman – and Rowsell-Shand’s second.
“It’s insane!” said Thiam.
Fellow Briton Katarina Johnson-Thompson at least laid to rest the demons of last year’s world championships when she failed to record a distance.
What could have been a British duel between Ennis-Hill and Johnson-Thompson did not materialise. She led after the first day but dropped back after Saturday’s long jump.
It moved her overall total to 2,904 points, 203 behind Belgian leader Nafissatou Thiam.
Thiam, however, dug deep to come in just over seven seconds behind, a second inside her personal best, and good enough to take gold.
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Theison-Eaton took the bronze and Johnson-Thompson was sixth. Her first effort was just 36.36m, almost six metres below her personal best, while her second was so poor she purposely stepped over the line so it counted as foul. “But those girls have got big jumps in the long jump and they can all run a good 800m, so it’ll be a challenging day tomorrow”, said Ennis-Hill. “Obviously I would have loved to defend my title but I knew it was a tall ask”. I train most days in the shot put, I try so hard in it.
