Golden girl Jess happy to be face of London showpiece

Ask anyone which Briton they think is a cert to be stood on the top step of the podium in the Olympic Stadium in 12 months time and the majority will say Jessica Ennis.

World and European heptathlon champion, the 25-year-old from Sheffield is a favourite to land gold at her home Olympics next summer.

Not that Ennis is being complacent. She hasn’t even set foot in London’s Olympic Stadium for 18 months for fear it might pre-empt her golden moment.

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She was already a world champion the first time she stepped onto what was then a building site, and has since added the world indoor title and the European crown to her growing trophy cabinet.

She could even be a double world outdoor champion by the time she steps back into the stadium on August 4 next summer for the first two days of the Olympic heptathlon final. But until then, she doesn’t want to curse it.

“I haven’t been for 18 months,” says Ennis. “It looked amazing when I went. Stepping into that stadium, with the crowd chanting your name – it’s just hard to comprehend.”

Ennis is the annointed face of London 2012, the woman everyone wants to see win Olympic gold.

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She knows it, because everyone keeps reminding her of it. Next summer will be her first Olympic experience, and what excites people about the young Sheffield woman is that her debut in the biggest show on earth is long overdue.

People remember her heartache at missing out on Beijing with a foot injury. They recall her jubilant lap of honour 12 months later as she celebrated with the crowd in Berlin as world champion.

And they expect her to follow in the footsteps of Denise Lewis by becoming our first women’s heptathlon Olympic champion in 12 years. In front of a home crowd, what could be better?

“It’s an honour, a great position to be in,” she says of the constant interest in her journey.

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“There will be lots of British athletes who are really good and will be carrying expectation on their shoulders. You don’t want to shun the spotlight.

“There’s definitely pressure, but it’s a nice kind of pressure to be under.

“Probably next year I’ll start picturing the stadium but not until the latter stages.

“You could definitely send yourself into a panic thinking of all the people who will be watching you.

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“I wouldn’t ever start thinking that. When you step out into the stadium you have to be total tunnel vision, focus on what you’re doing.”

Ennis was speaking at an Aviva sponsors’ day in London where she met up with Sally Gunnell, a woman who has experience of what Ennis will go through next year.

The 400m hurdler was by no means the favourite – as world No 1 Ennis will be – going into the Olympic final in Barcelona in 1992, but as commentator David Coleman screeched on BBC Television: ‘Gunnell goes for gold, and Gunnell gets the gold.’

Ennis took the opportunity of listening to Gunnell tell the story of the greatest moment in her sporting career, and then she picked the hurdler’s brains.

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“It’s great to hear from our past Olympians,” says Ennis. “I think it’s good to have informal social chats with former athletes. They’ve all been there before. It’s good to get differing people’s perspectives.”

Attending sponsors events has become part and parcel of the pre-London routine for Ennis.

Her six-day training schedule conducted by Toni Minichiello at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, and involving two sessions of javelin work with former Olympian Mick Hill at Leeds Metropolitan University, is demanding enough, and takes priority.

“I think I’m getting used to it; juggling everything, managing my time,” says Ennis, who reveals the support she gets from the people of her home county is gratefully received.

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“For instance this sponsorship day is a day off for me so I’m not missing training, that is of paramount importance.”

And it is training that is taking centre stage now as she plots the defence of her world title in Daegu, South Korea, next month.

“I’m in a really big block of training at the moment ahead of the World Championships,” says Ennis, who missed the European Indoor Championships in March with an ankle injury.

“I missed a few weeks of training at the beginning of the year which in the end meant I’d only done about six weeks of training and I really wanted to catch up. Because I got injured I had to change my schedule for the whole year. Training wise it’s all been focussed on the events; long jump and specifically the throwing events.

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“I can’t believe it was two years ago that I was celebrating becoming world champion. It feels like just a few months ago.

“Going into these championships as defending champion will be quite nerve-racking, with everyone out to beat me. It’s going to be a massive event, not least for the fact that we are a year out from the Olympics and everyone is training and preparing really hard for that. It’s going to be a really tough field this year. Everyone has improved.”

The key to whatever the outcome of Daegu is to not read too much into it.

“You want to do as well as you can to give you that confidence going into next year,” says Ennis. “But the main focus is next summer; so if I win the gold at the worlds I can’t get too excited and if I don’t win gold I can’t get too downhearted.

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“The result in Daegu will count for nothing, the key is being at the top of your game come London 2012.”

Aviva has been supporting British athletes since 1999

Jess will be starring in Aviva’s new TV advert to be aired from July 27

Jessica Ennis and Sally Gunnell are both ambassadors for Aviva, supporters of British athletes since 1999. To find out more, go to aviva.co.uk/athletics or follow us on Twitter @AvivaAthletics

Ennis’s road to London 2012

2006: In her first major international meet, the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Ennis wins a bronze medal in the heptathlon.

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2007: Breaks Denise Lewis’s British Under-23 record for the heptathlon and qualifies for the Beijing Olympics.

2008: Suffers a foot fracture in a meet at Gotzis, Austria, just six weeks from Beijing and takes heartbreaking decision to withdraw from the Olympics.

2009: Bounces back in spectacular fashion, winning the gold medal in the heptathlon at the World Championships in Berlin.

2010: Ennis goes from strength to strength, winning world indoor pentathlon title in Doha and European outdoor heptathlon gold in Barcelona.

2011: Ankle injury rules her out of European indoors in Paris but she is the favourite to defend her world heptathlon title in Daegu next month.

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