Jessica Ennis (born 28 January 1986 in Sheffield) is
a British athlete, competing in the heptathlon. Her
first senior championships was the 2005 World
University Games, where she won the bronze medal.
She then represented the English team at the 2006
Commonwealth Games, where she won another bronze
medal. Ennis is a member of the City of Sheffield
Athletic Club, Sheffield also being her home city.
Ennis is currently ranked fourth in the world, for
heptathlon, behind Carolina Klüft, Lyudmila Blonska
and compatriot, Kelly Sotherton. She is also
currently in the top 40 for High Jump and 100 m
hurdles.
During the 2006 Commonwealth Games she added more
than 350 points to her personal best, scoring a
total of 6,269 to win the heptathlon bronze medal.
The personal best of 1.91m that she cleared in the
heptathlon high jump would have been enough to take
the individual event gold medal.
In the 2006 European Championships, Ennis was in
bronze medal position after the first day of
competition. However her performance in subsequent
events was not sufficient for to maintain position,
and she moved down the leader table to finish in
eighth place, just three points behind the leading
British heptathlete Kelly Sotherton.
Notably she had good performances in several events,
achieving both personal and season's best records -
PBs in shot put and the 200m, SBs in the long jump
and javelin. Her overall total of 6,287 points was a
new personal best.
Ennis hoped to do well at the 2007 European Indoor
Championships, as they were to be held on home soil,
in Birmingham.
She scored 8.22 seconds, to drop into second behind
Carolina Klüft, in the hurdles. She then jumped
1.91m (the highest jump of the competition), to take
the lead. A 13.28m effort in the shot put saw Ennis
drop from first to fifth, with Kelly Sotherton
taking the lead. A 6.19 season's best in the long
jump, and 2:17.03 personal best in the 800m, allowed
Ennis to finish sixth, in what was arguably one of
the best pentathlons of all time. Her final score of
4716 was a personal best by more than 300 points.
Ennis automatically qualified for the eptathlon at
the World Championships.
At the British National Championships, and World
Trials, Ennis won the 100m hurdles beating
specialists, such as defending champion Sarah
Claxton, as well as rival Kelly Sotherton. Later in
the same day, Ennis won the High Jump, again beating
the specialists and Sotherton, who finished a close
second.
At the 2007 World Championships in Athletics, Ennis
was the fastest of the field in all three track
events, setting a personal best 12.97 seconds in the
first event, the 100m hurdles.
Overall, she finished fourth.
Ennis also went on to finish second overall in the
World Combined Events Challenge this season, behind
the Osaka silver medallist, Lyudmila Blonska but
ahead of the legendry Carolina Klüft.
In September 2007, Ennis won the inaugural European
Athletics Rising Star Award.
