JCCM Jane Cowmeadow Communications and Management

Jessica Ennis Adds European Gold to her World Titles

Aug 2, 09:38 AM

Jessica Ennis had to produce the best form of her life and duly rose to the occasion when winning the European Championships heptathlon title after a tense second day’s battle with Olympic champion Natalya Dobrynska.
Ennis tested fully by her Ukrainian rival, set a personal best and championship record of 6823 points to thwart the massive threat her rival who tallied 6848pts, posed in the final three events in Barcelona.
The latest success from the “Dream Team” of Ennis and coach Toni Minichiello saw her raise her game even higher than when winning to world title in Berlin last August.
Ennis started the second session with a 110 pts advantage and added much needed points with a 6.43 metres long jump and a personal best throw of 46.71m in the javelin.
But despite those performances she went into the final event over 800m with a narrow lead of only 18pts with Dobrynska determindedly trying to track her down.
Dobrynska broke for home with 250m remaining but Ennis quickly shot past her to finish in 2:10.18 and narrowly miss the 10-year-old UK record belonging to Denise Lewis by eight points.
Ennis said: “I am so happy and so relieved it has been a really tough couple of days – I’ve been pushed all the way and it’s a brilliant relief to have crossed that line and have won the gold medal.
“I warmed up poorly before the javelin and then threw poorly at the start so I was worried. But then I did a PB and that was a big turning point.
“On the start line for the 800 I was so nervous – it was pure nerves knowing had Dobrynska got ahead of me it would have cost the gold medal. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t let myself down.”

“Toni told me that I had to run 2.09.50 to get Denise’s British record and yes, of course I wanted to get that, but I’m justpleased that I hung onto gold.

report by Dave Martin