Ennis-Hill, who won her second world title past year in Beijing, has always maintained she is now a mother first and an athlete second.
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Ennis-Hill, 30, clocked a time of 12.84 seconds in the 100m hurdles followed by an impressive performance in the high jump.
“I’m pleased on the last that I mustered what energy I had left to take me from fourth into a medal position but it’s still not good enough in my eyes”, said Rutherford.
“I love hurdles and I always said I would love to give it a go but I kind of feel that the boat has sailed on that one”.
Jessica Ennis-Hill could have competed in her final heptathlon at Rio 2016..
But the quietly spoken 21-year-old, who was born to a Belgian mother and Senegalese father, and studies geography at the University of Liege, had other ideas.
That wraps up the main medal hopes on day seven but the men’s 100m does start on the athletics track and the women’s 100m concludes while Nathan Bailey will have high hopes in gymnastics’ men’s trampoline event following teammate Bryony Page’s silver success on Friday.
Ennis-Hill jumped 6.34m, while Johnson-Thompson achieved 6.54m – leaving just the javelin and 800m.
Sheffield-born Ennis-Hill said: “I was devastated with the shot putt”.
Thiam is clearly in the form of her life, though – her javelin PB of 52.62m was set this year, far better than the Briton’s season’s best of 46.09m – so Ennis-Hill will need to stay in touch in that event and then likely produce the fastest 800m she has run since before London 2012.
She said afterwards: “It’s just so hard to find the words to describe this”.
Next year’s World Championships are in London – the sight of that famous night four years ago when Ennis-Hill cemented her place in the hearts and minds of the British public.
China’s Xie Zhenye was fifth fastest with a personal best of 10.08.
Johnson-Thompson, the heir to her team-mate’s multi-eventing throne, is still very much in medal contention, though, trailing second-placed Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium by only 28 points.
“I’ve never got to a global final and I think if I finish my career without that happening it would be a waste of talent so that’s the aim”.
That left Ennis-Hill with it all to do in the final event, the 800m, with at least a personal best required to retain the gold medal.
Johnson-Thompson cut a frustrated figure, arching her javelin high into the Brazilian sky and resorting to practicing her technique with a water bottle, as her podium challenge ended. It was insane – we all had four hours sleep last night and we were finishing at, well, I don’t know what time it is now.
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“I’ve got no excuses, I just didn’t execute”.
