Jessica Ennis aims to turn silver into gold when she competes in her first heptathlon of the season next month.
The British golden girl says silver medals are her driving force
Jessica Ennis is aiming to turn silver into gold when she competes in her first heptathlon of the season in Gotzis next month, however she insists more disappointment there would not hamper her chances in London this summer.
The 26-year-old is one of Team GB's leading hopes for Olympic gold in front of a home crowd but she will go into the Games having been beaten at the last two global championships.
Ennis lost out to Russia's Tatyana Chernova at the World Championships in Daegu last year and then saw Ukrainian Nataliya Dobrynska break the world record to win gold in the pentathlon at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul in March.
The trio will battle head-to-head for the last time before London at the annual Hypo meeting in Gotzis, Austria on May 26 and 27, where Ennis will be looking for a third consecutive victory and a valuable confidence boost.
Unbeatable
She said: "It's definitely going to be a good indication of how everyone's performing and what's going to happen in the summer, but when it does come around to August you're all back on zero again and it starts again. It really matters at the Olympics."
Ennis looked near unbeatable at the World Championships in Berlin back in 2009 as she claimed the gold medal, but the bar has gone up significantly ever since.
The athlete added: "It's the highest it's ever been.
"Every time we go to championships people are setting personal bests, national records, world records. There's a number of athletes that could easily achieve that gold medal in London."
The Sheffield hopeful's success and high profile as the golden girl of the Olympics mean that every silver medal is seen as a setback, irrespective of the circumstances.
Dobrynska and Chernova both achieved scores higher than Ennis' career bests, but she is happy for expectation to come with the territory.
"People are just supportive and are willing me to do well, but it's very hard to win a gold medal every time and to get all the seven events right. But if my bad days are a silver medal and my good days are gold, I'll definitely take that," she said.
"A few years ago if someone said I'd pick up two gold medals at world level and two silvers, I would have said, 'great, that's brilliant, I'll take that every day'.
"But now those silvers-once you've tasted gold- there is a bit of disappointment. They definitely drive me on in training to try and get everything right."
High-class
A week before Gotzis, Ennis will compete at the Manchester Great CityGames, where she will race in a high-class 100 metres hurdles field which will also feature Olympic champion Dawn Harper.
Ennis was in the city on Thursday to promote the event, adding: "It's a great opportunity to run in a really high-class field and prepare in the best way I can to be at the top of my game in Gotzis.
"It's hard to get into meets because my event is the heptathlon, not just the hurdles, so to come here and run against some of the top American athletes is a brilliant opportunity."
The Great CityGames, on May 20, bring athletics into the heart of the city, and Ennis said: "It's so different.
"To have it in the city centre down Deansgate attracts a completely different crowd that might not normally come to watch athletics. And the level of competition is so high. It's a world-class field, which is great."
