Ennis-Hill dedicates world title to her boy, working moms

Britain’s Jessica Ennis-Hill is congratulated by Canada’s silver medal victor Brianne Theisen Eaton after winning the gold medal in the women’s heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships at the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing, Sunday, August 23, 2015. This time a year ago I’d just had my son and now I’m world champion.

“For now, I need to come back and do it all again, and maybe even better”.

Ennis-Hill knows Sunday will be a “big day”, especially with Johnson-Thompson also impressing on the world stage.

However, she ended the session 1,123 behind her compatriot after failing to record a distance, with the third red flag particularly exasperating.

“I thought it would have been a little bit too far out of my reach”, added the 29-year-old. The British team lodged a protest to have the decision reviewed but later said it accepted that it was a foul. This was instead an exercise in consistency, concentration and a victory for the intense training she had put in with her coach Toni Minichiello since returning in earnest last November.

That equated to just under six seconds, but Ennis-Hill’s best time was three and a half seconds faster than Nadine Broersen’s and more than a second faster than that of third-placed Brianne Theisen-Eaton.

The 22-year-old came unstuck after unwisely deciding to go for broke in the long jump, attacking the board aggressively in a bid to claw back some of Ennis-Hill’s overnight advantage in the sweltering conditions. Silver went to Dilshod Nazarov of Tajikistan for his 78.55 throw, beating Wojciech Nowicki who took bronze on 78.55, but had poor results on the other attempts.

But there was drama in the first of three events when an astonishing show of bravado by Johnson-Thompson spectatularly backfired as she fouled out with all three efforts in the long jump, her strongest discipline. Johnson-Thompson decided to run around the track at a slow pace to save herself for the long jump heats on Thursday.

“At that point, it was all-or-nothing for me and I had to give it my all”. I want to save my legs’.

The 29-year-old from Great Britain has not competed in a major event since being crowned Olympic champion on home soil in 2012, but she made up for lost time in China.

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.

Johnson-Thompson became tearful as she finished an interview with BBC reporter Phil Jones after the 800m.

Rabah Yousif (45.24) joined Rooney in the semi-finals but Jarryd Dunn (45.49) bowed out, while there was a personal best 54.52 for Meghan Beesley as she secured safe passage to the 400m hurdles semi-finals along with Eilidh Child (54.74).