Jessica Ennis-Hill is up for the Sportswoman of the Year award
Last Updated: 05/11/15 3:47pm
Jessica Ennis-Hill became world heptathlon champion in August – 13 months after giving birth to son Reggie.
The Sheffield 'Supermum' completed a remarkable return to athletics this season when she won gold at the world athletics championships in Beijing, regaining the world title she had won six years earlier in Berlin.
"This is definitely one of the greatest moments of my career, I still can't believe it," Ennis-Hill said. "Me and coach Toni (Minichiello) spoke about coming here, and we only wanted to come if I was able to compete for a medal. We spoke about the bronze medal and that it would be amazing for a silver medal.
"But we never spoke about gold. I kind of thought it was a little beyond me this year."
The Olympic champion had only made the decision to compete in China the month before after three season's bests at the London Anniversary Games.
Besides her undoubted talent and strength-of-character, Ennis-Hill has always been a consistent performer, especially while others have cracked under the pressure, and she maintained that high level of success on day two.
She had a six-second cushion going into the 800m and she was too professional to squander that lead. She won heat four in style, the time of 2:10.13 giving her 970 points from the seventh and final event.
Overall, Ennis-Hill amassed 6,669 points, with Canada's Brianne Theisen-Eaton trailing 115 points behind in silver.
To put this tally into context, Ukrainian Hanna Melnychenko became 2013 world champion with 6,586pts and Ennis-Hill was Olympic champion with 6,955pts.
Beijing represented Ennis-Hill's second full heptathlon since London 2012 Games. The first came in May at the prestigious Hypo-Meeting in May. She was fourth with 6,520pts, 320 more than the qualifying standard required for selection for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Watch the Sportswomen of the Year Awards on Sky Sports 1 and Sky 1 from 9.30pm on Friday November 6.
