Jessica Ennis and her Remarkable Comeback

This time last year Jessica Ennis faced the real possibility of her highly promising athletics career being finished after suffering from two stress fractures to her right ankle that ended her dream of winning a medal at the Beijing Olympics.

Twelve months on and Britain’s number one heptathlete is not only fully recovered in body and mind, but is oozing enough confidence to state that she is looking to break the British hurdles record at next week’s AAA’s Championships in Birmingham, and that she is more than ready to take on the world in Berlin next month.

All this stems from her remarkable comeback performance in Italy in May where, in winning the heptathlon on the shores of Lake Garda, she became the third highest British points scorer ever with 6,587, just behind Denise Lewis and Judy Simpson and ahead of her rival Kelly Sotherton, and the best heptathlete in the world in 2009.

It wasn’t just the score that amazed the world of track and field. It was the nature in which Ennis bounced back from an injury described by her doctors as “career-threatening.”

“When I heard those words my heart sunk,” the 23-year-old from Sheffield explains. “I knew I had the potential to achieve many feats in my sport, and the fact that I’d already won a Commonwealth bronze and finished 4^th in the 2007 world championships, backed this up. It was absolutely horrible to have such a serious injury, and it was painful to sit at home and watch an Olympics I expected to compete for a medal in, but it’s made me more patient, more grateful for the life I lead, and far hungrier than before for medals.”

Her mindset played a huge part in her recovery although, as Ennis is first to admit, she wasn’t the easiest person to be around at first. “I couldn’t allow myself to believe the injury was career-threatening even though, looking back, it clearly was,” she says. “In reality it could have been over for me because the area injured sometimes doesn’t heal properly due to poor blood circulation. I wore a space boot for ten weeks which went right up to my knee. I hated it, and I know I wasn’t much fun to live with. My boyfriend, Andy, handled me really well, but there were lots of ups and downs, tears, and “Why me?” moments. All along, though, I had the world championships next month in my sights.”

When she turned up in Italy her goals were modest, by her high standards. “All I wanted was to reach the qualifying mark for the worlds, and to come through the event without a physical reaction,” she admits. What she got was a huge personal best, and the biggest score in the year in her sport.

“It was a real shock. I made a great start in the hurdles and high jump and that settled me. Then the throws, which are my weaker events, went well, and even the long jump was acceptable. It was a very solid performance, and it erased any lingering doubts I had.”

It was all the more remarkable because Ennis has had to go back to the drawing board with her long jump, changing her take-off foot from right to left to protect the injury. “It’s like suddenly writing with your other hand and for a while it seemed really strange,” she says. “I’m not quite there yet. My best using my right foot is 6.40 whereas 6.16 is as far as I’ve gone on my left foot, but I’ll be better than that by the worlds. I think Italy gave me masses of confidence, and also made me realise how much I’ve missed competing. I wouldn’t wish my injuries, nor missing the Olympics, on anyone, but it will do me good in the long run.”  

Next weekend Ennis will be at the Aviva AAA’s Championships, the official British trials for the world championships, where she will compete in the long jump and hurdles to sharpen up. Despite being a multi-events athlete she has set her sights on breaking the British hurdles record of 12.80 set by Angela Thorne. “I ran 12.81 last week,” she reports. “So the record has to be my goal.”

The plan then is to compete at Crystal Palace in three weeks’ time, and then Loughborough before spending time at the British holding camp in Portugal prior to Berlin.  

It is hard to find too many other British athletes heading for the German capital with genuine chances of medalling, let alone becoming world champions, with Paula Radcliffe and fellow heptathlete Sotherton still struggling with fitness. Meanwhile, in the heptathlon, with Lyudmila Blonska kicked out of the sport for failing a second drugs test, last summer’s Olympic silver medallist, Hyleas Fountain, unable to qualify  through the American trials for the worlds, and the 2008 world champion, Carolina Kluft, now simply a long jumper, Ennis’s chances are looking good.

“Well, first I’d like to say that it’s good that Blonska’s gone and out of my sport,” Ennis responds. “It’s terrible that she cheated the first time, but to do it twice is unbelievable. She came third when I finished fourth at the worlds in 2008, so her actions have cost me a world championships medal.

“It’s a shame Carolina’s no longer competing although, if I’m an honest, all the heptathletes are breathing a sigh of relief. And I’d love Kelly to be fit because we push each other and we have a great rivalry.

“There are still a number of girls who will be hard to beat. Obviously Nataliya Dobrynska, the Olympic champion, heads that list, and Tatyana Chernova, who came third, will be there as well.”

You sense there is a “but,” though, and there is. “But I feel I’m ready, I mean really ready, to step it up now and challenge for a medal at the very least. It’s not just the world best score I set in May. It’s not just that I’m a year older and wiser, and that my best is yet to come, hopefully at the 2012 London Olympics.

“I think the main reason is because of what I’ve faced up to and come through. After the year I’ve had – the lowest time in my life – I know I can handle anything thrown at me, and that puts me in a very good place. I’ve got some lost time to catch up, and I intend to do that in Berlin.”

Yesterday she sat inside Centre Court at Wimbledon watching the Williams sisters slug it out in the women’s singles final. On August 16^th, as the seven-discipline heptathlon reaches its conclusion at the world championships, Jessica Ennis will be hoping it will be her time in the sunshine.

Jessica Ennis was hosting an Aviva UKA Academy training session with local children at the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield, a new approach to grassroots sport designed to give every UK child the chance to get involved in athletics by 2012. Go to aviva.co.uk/athletics.