Ennis admits to ‘throwing away’ her world title after poor effort in javelin sees her end with silver

Britain’s safest bet for a gold medal at the World Championships in Daegu could only manage a silver medal following a disappointing javelin attempt in the penultimate discipline of the women’s heptathlon.

Despite a bold effort to haul back the huge deficit in the 800m, the 25-year-old relinquished her world title to Russia’s Tatyana Chernova.

Chernova set two personal bests and four season’s bests in the two days of competition, yet it was a self-confessed ‘big disaster’ from Ennis in the javelin that proved the difference.

Ennis, who had not been beaten in the heptathlon since recovering from the foot injury that ruled her out of the Beijing Olympics, led by 118 points after five events by equalling her personal best in the long jump at the start of day two. But her title defence unravelled when she managed just 39.95m in the javelin, exactly 13m down on Chernova.

That translated into a deficit of 133 points and around nine seconds to make up in the 800m, and although Ennis recorded a new personal best of two minutes 07.81 seconds in finishing second, Chernova was on her shoulder in third to seal victory.

With 6,751 points, Ennis scored 20 more than when winning the title two years ago, and even her personal best of 6,823 would not have been enough with Chernova finishing with 6,880.

So she settled for silver as Britain’s own search for a gold medal at these championships continued.

Ennis said: “I have mixed emotions.

“I’m obviously disappointed because I really wanted that gold medal, but it was the javelin that let me down. It was a big disaster for me.

“It’s a silver medal at the end of the day so obviously I can’t beat myself up too much.

“I haven’t shed any tears yet, but I might do later. Straight after the javelin I was just devastated. I knew I had just thrown it away and it’s tough to deal with.

“I had a few hours to get my thoughts together. I knew the gap was so big, virtually impossible, but I just wanted to go out in the 800, leave everything on the track, run as hard as I could and just walk away from it knowing I had given it everything.”

The decision to hold the javelin in yesterday’s morning session rather than the evening as usual did not go down well with Ennis’s coach Toni Minichiello, who works alongside Ennis at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

Neither did the patch of seemingly repaired track on the javelin runway.

However, despite slipping on her first two throws, Ennis was keen not to read too much into her poor showing.

“I don’t want to walk away from it and analyse it too much,” she said.

“I don’t think it’s something I’m going to dwell on and mull over, I think it was just one of those days where it just didn’t come together.

“I think the event is always going to improve year upon year. It was a brilliant score by Chernova, she performed really well.

“I think I performed well, I’ve had some solid performances, some PBs, so I can take positives away from that and work on the javelin.

“I’ve got to make sure I improve the areas I need to improve and make sure it’s a gold next year.

“It was always going to be tough this year, it’s going to be even tougher next year, but I’m just going to make sure I’m stronger and better next year to make sure I get that gold medal.”

Elsewhere, there was mixed news in the men’s and women’s 400m hurdles as Perri Shakes-Drayton and Eilidh Child missed out on their final, while Dai Greene cruised through. Wakefield’s Martyn Bernard – who has struggled with injury all season – failed to qualify for the high jump final.