Golden girl Ennis refuses to relax in push for glory

World champion Jessica Ennis says the fear of failure is inspiring her bid to add continental gold to her global title when the European Championships start in Barcelona later this month.

The Sheffield athlete is favourite to win for the second consecutive summer over a field which includes the other medallists from last year's World Championships in Berlin and every leading heptathlete except America's Hyleas Fountain.

Twenty-four year-old Ennis has dominated her rivals on the last two occasions they have met – the most recent being in Gtzis, Austria, in May – with her overall supremacy being reinforced during the event's final discipline, the 800m.

In Berlin Ennis surged past Olympic gold medallist Natalya Dobrynska on the home straight to not only lead from first event to last but also make a statement that she is the strongest multi-discipline athlete on the planet.

"As an athlete you are so competitive anyway. I'd led from the beginning to the end; I just wanted to finish it properly and do the job properly by winning that last event. I really enjoyed it, it was a brilliant experience. I'll never forget the last bit of the 800m," she said.

Ennis added that had she been on the receiving end of that kind of display then she would have gone away and re-doubled her training.

"I think that I'd want to beat her. I'd go away and train really, really hard like everyone else will be in Europe and the world. If it was me looking at another athlete I'd definitely want to pull everything out and try and beat her," she said. "That definitely does motivate me knowing that they're all training very hard and will come into the championships focused. I have set a standard for myself now; I don't want to move backwards I want to keep moving forwards and achieving a lot more.

"It does get me out of bed in a morning and make me train a lot harder."

The man ensuring Ennis keeps up her fierce work ethic is Toni Minichiello. Having worked together for more than a decade, Minichiello is sensitive to the pressure being put upon his athlete.

He says it is unfair to expect Ennis to romp away with another gold medal: "It (the standard of competition) is the same as the worlds last year.

"She doesn't get a respite. There's an expectation to win the gold but it's (only) a European. And there's a feeling that it is a lesser gold than at the World Championships.

"The reality is that it is just as strong. It is 12 months closer to the Olympics, so they'll be a little bit sharper. Last year you could catch them on the hop because the year after Beijing, where they'll have risen mentally and physically, is often seen as a fallow one."

Ennis is an engaging, positive personality off the track but behind her smile is an athlete who has felt enough mental and physical pain to know each championship has to be cherished.

Missing out on the Olympics in 2008 with multiple stress-fractures to her foot has left her determined to make the most of every opportunity to win more medals:

"Every year is really important for me," she said. "Doing well last year has made me even more hungry to achieve and prove I can win medals at major championships. The last time in the Euros I came eighth in Gothenburg.

"It (the injury) made me think that because major championships come round only once or twice a year I wanted to make the most of them.

"If you pick up an injury or an illness you can miss something like the Europeans which come around every four years."

Illness has been very much on the mind of the team surrounding Ennis. A virus disrupted her training this summer, but she returned to action at the Diamond League meeting in Gateshead a fortnight ago where she threw a season's best javelin.

Getting off to a good start on her strong first day in the 100m hurdles and high jump is vital to not having to rely on her weaker events such as the javelin and shot put, said Minichiello.

"Jess's training has been disturbed by illness. We lost not a long time but a good two and half weeks so we're playing catch up. She's just a bit off at the moment, which should come back in a few sessions.

"Everybody she competed against in Gtzis has disappeared off the face of the earth so I've not seen anything in terms of performances. After there, even though the weather was shocking, they have gone home and knuckled down for eight weeks.

"The heptathlon performance for Jess comes out of the first two events (hurdles and high jump). Under 13 seconds and 190cm in the high jump and we know we're getting a good score.

"She'll go out and will produce the performance she is capable of. As long as she can focus on herself she'll be okay."

As Ennis focuses on herself she will no doubt be aware of her rivals looking to see how she copes with the pressure of being favourite. If she wins the battle of minds then her fear of losing will remain just that.