07 May 2009

Jessica Ennis (City of Sheffield) will make her comeback to the heptathlon this weekend when she competes at “Multistars” an Italian combined events meeting in Desenzano del Garda. The 23 year old has not competed in a full heptathlon since finishing 4th at the last edition of the IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan in August 2007.

She suffered crushing disappointment last summer when a stress fracture in her foot caused her withdrawal at the midway point of a heptathlon in Gotzis, Austria and subsequently ruled her out of the Beijing Olympic Games, where she would have been expected to challenge for a medal.

Following a full rehabilitation programme – overseen by UKA – she returned to competition during the indoor season in January in a series of low-key competitions where she has shown glimpses of the form that took her to the brink of the World Championships podium two years ago.

To secure a place in the Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland team for this year’s championships in Berlin, Ennis will need to achieve the UKA “A” qualifying standard of 6100 points. Her personal best is 6469 from Osaka. She also won this competition in Italy two years ago with a score of 6388.

Ennis said: “For me this weekend is about going out to get the qualification for the World Championships. I am really looking forward to this weekend, but having not competed for a year I am definitely a bit anxious about getting back into competition, but I have had a good period of training over the winter and have been happy with how things have been going with my programme.”