All the pressure world champion Ennis feels comes from within

World heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis will not allow the weight of expectation to get to her as she targets European glory.

The 24-year-old will step up her preparations for this month's European Championships at the Aviva Grand Prix meeting in Gateshead this weekend as a red-hot favourite to claim gold in Barcelona.

Ennis, who will captain the Great Britain team in Catalonia, will go into the event having added the World indoor pentathlon title to the heptathlon triumph she secured outdoors in Berlin last year.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

However, while she has inherited the status of the woman to be shot at –for so long the property of Sweden's Carolina Kluft – she insists all the pressure will come from within.

Ennis said: "Everyone feels a little bit of pressure, but it is more the buzz.

"I enjoy the position I am in because it's great to be at the top of your game and healthy and performing well and just making the most of it, and not getting too bogged down with people talking about pressure and expectation, just knowing that I have trained hard through the winter and knowing I am in good shape and if I do what I am capable of doing, it will all come together right.

"I probably feel pressure from myself more than anyone else because I set myself goals in training and in competition, and I do beat myself up a bit if things don't go to plan.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"It's probably more pressure from myself than anything else."

Ennis will return to action at Gateshead, where she will compete in the 200m and the javelin, after an enforced two-week lay-off due to illness which she admits has altered her planning.

It will be a relief to Ennis just to be back out on the track after the virus which confined her to her bed for a fortnight just when she needed it least.

The illness, which affected her inner ear, was eventually cured by a specialist without recourse to medication.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She said: "It's not like an injury where you can do certain bits. I couldn't do anything for those two weeks, so I have missed a little bit.

"But I don't think I have missed that much that it is going to affect my performance too much.

"I haven't really seen much of what the other girls have been doing in individual events or anything like that, so I am not sure what shape they are going to be in.

"But I would imagine they will be in great shape anyway, so that's what I am going in thinking.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"I wouldn't say I have no fear. I am definitely nervous and you never know what to expect at a championships.

"I am going in there thinking everyone is going to be in great shape and performing at their best, so hopefully there will be no massive surprises," she added.