10th May 2009

Ennis PB On Return

 

10 May 2009

Jessica Ennis (City of Sheffield) has made a superb comeback to heptathlon competition by winning the Multistars IAAF Combined Events Challenge in Desenzano del Garda in Italy with a new personal best of 6587.

The performance puts her third on the all-time British list behind 2000 Olympic champion Denise Lewis and Judy Simpson. The 23 year old suffered heartbreak last summer when a stress fracture to her right foot ruled her out of the Beijing Olympic Games.

This weekend was her first full heptathlon since the 2007 World Championships in Osaka and having comfortably exceeded the UKA "A" qualifying standard of 6100 for this year’s championships she is already well on her way to Berlin where she has a real chance of improving on her fourth place finish from two years ago.  

Ennis was in commanding position overnight with her best ever day one score of 4003 and she built on it on Sunday with 6.16m (-0.4m/s) in the long jump, 42.70m in the javelin and a PB of 2:09:88 in the 800m to win the competition overall.

Afterwards, she said: "It’s a massive relief. It was just awful being injured last year and It’s good to get back in the game and to come away with a PB is a huge bonus. I feel in good shape and good health, there are no aches and pains. I just can’t believe how well the whole weekend has gone.

"It all started with the hurdles yesterday which went really well and It’s just rolled on through. The momentum just built throughout the weekend." Ennis was a little down on her best in the long jump – where her best ever is a wind-assisted 6.54m.

This is largely due to switching her take off leg from her right leg to her left leg since her injury, but she said this weekend had laid many of her concerns to rest. "I really wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get out to six metres, so I was pleased with that. The run up was very good, but there is still some work to be done there.

"I’m not 100% sure if I will do another heptathlon before Berlin, I will sit down with my coach and then we will decide."