PERSPECTIVE: I bumped into Seb Coe recently and asked him who was “Britain’s Cathy Freeman” and he replied Jessica Ennis because she is much loved and a world champion - like Cathy was. So I guess we need to watch Ennis’s progress toward her own home Olympics… kk.
Jessica Ennis feeling the pressure ahead of London 2012
Aviva International Match
Venue: Kelvin Hall, Glasgow Dates: Saturday 29 January
Coverage: Watch live on BBC1 and BBC Sport website (UK only) 1400-1630
By Oliver Brett
World heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis admits she is already feeling the burden of expectation ahead of next year’s Olympic Games in London.
The Sheffield star, 24, defends her world crown in South Korea in August.
But she told BBC Sport she was already conscious of “a buzz” surrounding the Olympics in the summer of 2012.
“With it being next year, it’s quite scary. I suppose it puts quite a lot of pressure on you if everyone expects you to bring home a gold medal,” she said.
Ennis began her season in her hometown last weekend, at the English Institute of Sport, competing in three individual events including the shot put, where she recorded an indoors personal best.
“The shot put has always been an event that’s not come as naturally as running and jumping, so to open up with 14.11m is really good,” she said.
She will be keeping busy during the early part of the indoor season, with an appearance at Loughborough this Saturday, where she will include the long-jump among three events, before the first really competitive meet follows, the Aviva International at Glasgow on 29 January.
All eyes at Kelvin Hall will be trained on her re-match with the powerful American Lolo Jones in the 60m hurdles. Last January, Ennis set a new British record of 7.97 seconds in a surprise defeat of the world indoor champion.
“I’m expecting the hurdles to be a quick race again, the competition steps up a bit with Lolo Jones, and it’s a chance to try to improve my time again,” she said.
Ennis stresses that personal bests are not generally top of her agenda: “It’s more about making sure I’m happy with my preparations for the European Indoors in Paris in March.”
In Paris, she will compete in the pentathlon, which is all seven heptathlon events minus the javelin and 200m.
“It’s very enjoyable, and quite different. It’s over one day so it’s quite intense. But it’s good, I’ve done it a few times in the past.”
It will be very tough to go to Korea and try to retain my title… I would imagine all the top heptathletes who will be at London 2012 will be there
But by far the biggest event of the year will come in Deagu, South Korea, where Ennis goes up against the rest of the world’s best in her primary event.
“The World Championships is going to be a really big one for me as reigning heptathlon champion,” she said.
"It will be very tough to go over there and try to retain my title. It will be a top-class competition, I’m sure. I would imagine all the top heptathletes who will be at London 2012 will be there such as Nataliya Dobrynska, the Olympic champion, and the American Hyleas Fountain.
“There will be a couple of Germans and a couple of Russians to watch out for too and our own Louise Hazel, who did really well at the Commonwealth Games [winning gold for England].”
Ennis will be hoping to achieve a new personal best points tally, with Denise Lewis’s British record of 6,831 points on target to be swallowed up this year.
But the 7,000 points aggregate, achieved by only three women in history, is not yet on Ennis’s wish list.
“I think 7,000 points is such a good score, it’s one of those things that seems so far away,” she says. “But one day I hope to get close to it.”