Previews21 Aug 2011


Women's Heptathlon - PREVIEW

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Jessica Ennis on the way to a season's best 6.44m in Birmingham (© Getty Images)

Jessica Ennis is looking in good shape to retain her world title in Daegu in what will be an important marker for her on the road to the London 2012 Games.


A flourishing season so far began in a different manner for Ennis, who was out of action for seven weeks with an ankle injury, but she returned to competition in mid May and has hardly put a foot wrong since.


The 25-year-old Briton has been putting together a series of improvements which she hopes will make her even harder to beat in Korea than she was in Berlin.


Most recently, on 12 August, she ran a personal best of 12.79sec in the 100m Hurdles at the Loughborough meeting, two hundredeths of a second better than her previous best mark, which took her ahead of Angie Thorp on the British all-time lists into second place behind the national record holder Tiffany Ofili Porter.


Porter, a high hurdles specialist, beat Ennis at last month’s British trials and championships, but Ennis was happy enough with second place in 12.96.


Elsewhere during the weekend at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium, Ennis was busy buffing things up into a shine as she equalled her personal best of 14.25m in the shot and won the High Jump with 1.89m before finishing second in the 100m Hurdles. On the following day she achieved a season’s best of 6.44m in the Long Jump, just seven centimetres below her personal best, and threw 42.93m in the javelin.


“I’m really pleased,” Ennis said. “I’ve been working on some things in the Long Jump and I feel that’s improving so I’m glad to have had that jump. Hopefully I can put a little bit more on it come Daegu.  It’s been a really good weekend.”


On 29 May, the Commonwealth and World Indoor champion underlined her status as favourite by winning the annual Heptathlon meeting in Gotzis with 6790 points, where she ran a personal best of 23.11sec in the 200m and managed a 1.91m High Jump.


Russia’s 23-year-old Tatyana Chernova was second with 6539, a total she bettered in June as she won in Kladno with a personal best mark of 6773 which made it clear that she too has serious ambitions of winning in Daegu.


Jennifer Oeser of Germany will also have serious aspirations after winning at Ratingen last month with a total of 6663 which puts her third on this year’s world listings.


Meanwhile the Olympic champion, Ukraine’s Natalia Dobrynska, is having a less enjoyable season, only managing sixth place in Gotzis with a season’s best of 6332. She has a way to go to regain her form of last season, where she finished one place behind Ennis at the European Championships with a personal best score of 6778, with Oeser also setting a new best of 6683 in third place.


Ennis had to set a personal best herself to win in that company, taking gold with 6823.


Aiga Grabuste of Latvia will fancy her chances of challenging for a medal in South Korea after her performance in finishing runner-up to Oeser in Ratingen, where she scored 6507. A place above her in the listings is Poland’s Karolina Tyminska, who finished behind Chernova in Kladno with 6516 points.


Ennis’s fellow Briton Louise Hazel, and the woman she beat into second place at last year’s Commonwealth Games, Jessica Zelinka, will be hoping to take another step forward in global terms from their current position on the fringes.


“I’m hoping that Louise will do well in Daegu,” Ennis says. “Just not as well as me!”


Mike Rowbottom for the IAAF


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