On Form Ennis Wins Gold

 

by James Skitt - 17.08.09

Jessica Ennis was in scintillating form this weekend as she became Britain’s first World Championship heptathlon gold medallist in Berlin.

Ennis, who accesses English Institute of Sport (EIS) services from her training base in Sheffield, led from start to finish over the two days of events with her total of 6731 points, some 238 ahead of silver medallist Jennifer Oeser, now putting  her second on the UK all time list.

The 23 year-old, who suffered Olympic heartbreak last year when injury prevented her from competing in Beijing, held an 11 second cushion going into the final event, the 800m, and the result was never in doubt after she opened up a huge lead on the first lap and eventually won the race in a time of 2:12.22.

Ennis’s recovery from the stress fracture to her right ankle, diagnosed after she was withdrawn from an event in Austria last June, has centred around her coach, Toni Minichiello, and a range of support services provided by the EIS in Sheffield alongside UKA support.

EIS Lead Physiotherapist for Yorkshire Rob Johnson, who has worked with Ennis and her coach for the past seven years, told eis2win.co.uk:

“Following her injury we all sat down as a team with Jess and her coach Toni and went through her whole year, putting a plan  together which we then fed back in to UK Athletics.”

“We then monitored her progress very carefully, every time she did something new we would watch her in training and made any modification suggestions to her coach if required.”

Johnson has overseen the EIS support from Physiotherapist Alison Rose and Soft Tissue Therapist Derry Suter, with Rone Thompson providing additional physiotherapy support at Loughborough when required, whilst Ennis also received Sports Psychology support from EIS Head of Service Mark Bawden following her injury.

“It’s a very close knit team which Jess puts great trust in and we have worked very closely together with her, her coach and UK Athletics all the way” Johnson added.

“She has been a very easy athlete to deal with because she has had just one thing on her mind and that was to get better. She is a remarkable athlete and person and it has worked out fantastically for her.”

Ennis’s compatriot in the heptathlon, Lousie Hazel, put in a determined performance on her debut on the World stage, breaking the 6000 point barrier for just the second time in her career to earn 14th place.

Elsewhere, Christine Ohuruogu and Phillips Idowu both qualified comfortably for the finals of the women’s 400m and men’s triple jump respectively, whilst Dwain Chambers finished sixth in a record breaking men’s 100m final as Usain Bolt once again set a new world record winning in 9.58 seconds.

Photography © Getty Images