News12 Jan 2015


British stars Ennis-Hill and Johnson-Thompson go to Gotzis

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All smiles - Jessica Ennis celebrates her PB in the Shot Put in Gotzis (© Lorenzo Sampaolo)

Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill will have her first combined events outing since she won her gold medal on home soil when she lines up at the famous Hypo-Meeting in the Austrian town of Gotzis on 30-31 May, the organisers of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting announced on Monday (12).

Ennis-Hill’s 2013 season came to an early end because of injury and she took 2014 off due to maternity, giving birth to her son Reggie last July.

Nevertheless, she could hardly choose a better place to make her comeback as she won in Gotzis for three consecutive years, from 2010-2012.

However, she will face some stiff competition in Gotzis.

In addition to Canada’s Brianne Theisen-Eaton and the Netherlands' Dafne Schippers, who have already been announced, the meeting organisers also said that Ennis-Hill’s compatriot Katarina Johnson-Thompson will return to Gotzis to defend the title she won in 2014.

Johnson-Thompson put together a world-leading tally and personal best of 6682 in Gotzis last year but a stress fracture in her foot meant she missed last year’s big events, the Commonwealth Games and European Championships.

The third of a trio of super-talented Britons announced on Monday is world junior heptathlon champion Morgan Lake, who will be looking to improve on her personal best of 6148 set when winning her global title in Eugene last summer.

Lake is still only 17 but will be looking to attack, at least, Johnson-Thompson’s national junior record of 6267 points, the latter currently standing eighth on the world junior all-time list.

Phil Minshull and organisers for the IAAF

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