Jessica Ennis-Hill returns to heptathlon action in style to sit well placed in Gotzis

Jessica Ennis-Hill lies third overall after four events at the Hypo-Meeting
Ennis-Hill competed for the first time in the event since London 2012
Injury and motherhood had kept the 29-year-old away from action
Ennis-Hill is 103 points behind Canadian leader Brianne Theisen-Eaton

Published:
18:09 GMT, 30 May 2015

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Updated:
23:01 GMT, 30 May 2015

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If Jessica Ennis-Hill was in any danger of getting carried away with an impressive start to her first heptathlon for almost three years, fending questions from a throng of journalists while stood in a wheelie bin ought to bring her swiftly back down to earth.

Addressing the press in a dingy tunnel underneath Mosle-stadion in Gotzis, Austria, is among Ennis-Hill’s less glamorous career assignments but through the bitter cold of the end-of-day ice bath, she beamed.

‘I feel like I’m getting my ping back,’ she said and she looked like it, too.

Jessica Ennis-Hill made an impressive return to heptathlon action on Saturday to lie third overall in Austria

The 29-year-old Sheffield athlete dropped a place after recording a throw of 13.37m in the shot put

After four events, she has 3,928 points which puts her third in a field of world-class athletes, set to smash the 6,200 points mark she needs to qualify for next year’s Rio Olympics, which is what she came here to do.

‘The magnitude of that achievement in her first heptathlon since winning gold at London 2012, just 10 months after giving birth to baby Reggie and with very little training cannot be overstated. It was unusual to see Ennis-Hill finishing last and flailing in a race, as she did in her 200m heat, but just as she is learning to temper the very high standards she sets for herself, so should we.

‘I’m always measuring myself against previous performances so it’s hard to come out here and not be right in the mix,’ she said. ‘But if I look at it as a whole and where I was a few weeks ago or months ago that I’ve actually come here and completed day one and I’m third overall. I can’t be too disappointed. I’m happy. It has showed me what I need to do.’

In the absence of world record-holder decathlete Ashton Eaton, who withdrew from the prestigious Hypo meeting five minutes before the first race, Ennis-Hill was the biggest pull for the 5,000 in the stadium’s sole concrete stand and on the surrounding grassy banks.

Her points haul of 3,928 means she is 103 points behind leader Brianne Theisen-Eaton with three rounds to go

Ennis-Hill’s coach Toni Minichiello speaks with her during the women’s heptathlon in Austria

In the first event of the day, the 100m hurdles, she could manage just 13.24sec, 0.7sec down on her personal best. But when you consider that personal best of 12.54sec would have put her fourth in the individual event at London 2012, it is no disaster.

There was much happier news in the high jump. Since resuming training in November, Ennis-Hill has done just four high jump sessions and admitted having ‘no idea’ how she would fare in an event that poses the most threat to her troublesome Achilles tendons.

The 29-year-old did a double fist pump after a first time clearance of 1.86m, equalling the height she registered on her way to victory at London 2012. Three failures at 1.89m followed but smiling, she embraced former Olympic champion Denise Lewis watching from the infield.

Dafne Schippers (L) of the Netherlands and Britain’s Ennis Hill in action during the 200 metres event

Ennis-Hill recovers in an ice bath after day one of the women’s heptathlon during the Hypomeeting

Ennis-Hill is hoping her post-baby comeback ultimately proves more fruitful than Lewis’s. The 2000 Olympic champion scored 6,287 in the year she came back from having a baby and then finished fifth in the World Championships 12 months later. Ennis-Hill is unlikely to even go to the Beijing World Championships this summer if she thinks a medal is unobtainable and also has her sights set on making the podium in Rio in 2016.

A 13.95m shot put was a way down on her best but enough to place her third after three events and she maintained that position with a 23.86sec 200m.

Ennis-Hill never normally uses the heptathlon points calculators which are popular with competitors but she might be unable to resist a brief look overnight. Even applying modest estimates for the remaining three events — long jump, javelin and 800m — she is on course to comfortably exceed 6,400 points.

Teenage sensation Morgan Lake is likely to miss out on achieving the Rio qualifying mark this time but her dad and coach Eldon Lake said studying for her upcoming A-levels exams had taken precedent in recent weeks.