2011年8月28日日曜日

DAEGU 2011: Single-minded Ennis focused on herself - not rivals - More Than The Games

Posted: Friday 26th August 2011 | 9:50

Aviva Athletics

From Tom Reynolds, Sportsbeat, in Daegu

JESS Ennis knows her way around the internet - after all this is the girl that announced her engagement on Twitter - but she's more likely to be checking out celebrity gossip on her beloved laptop than her heptathlon rivals for the World Athletics Championships.

FOCUS: For one week only Jess Ennis is not the London 2012 poster girl - her only focus is retaining her world heptathlon title (Getty Images)
FOCUS: For one week only Jess Ennis is not the London 2012 poster girl - her only focus is retaining her world heptathlon title (Getty Images)

And as for egosurfing - the art of googling yourself to find out what others are saying - Ennis is both not bothered and far too busy to keep up with the acres of newsprint being generated about the poster girl of next year's London 2012 Olympics.

"My coach Toni looks at the rankings more than me but obviously I am aware of them," Ennis told national press agency Sportsbeat. 

"The only things I really follow are the major heptathlon meets throughout the season and I like to see how people are getting on when everything is put together.

"But I don’t go surfing the internet to see what Dobrynska or others have done in individual events leading up the champs or anyone else.

"I definitely won’t be googling myself either. I think you are aware of things that have been said about you. People always save me cuttings and say ‘read this’.  I’ll take it but I am not bothered about reading the whole article, I did the interview, I know what I said so it’s nothing new to me.

"If it’s put in a different way or there is a bit of a spin on it I am not bothered really, I know how I feel about a situation or going into a competition I don’t want to read about it."

However, Ennis is too savvy not be aware of the pressure being weighed down on her slender but muscular shoulders as the countdown to London 2012 gathers pace.

UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee has targeted seven medals in Daegu, one short of his ambitious eight aspiration at next year's Olympics, and will be banking on reigning champion Ennis to make one of them gold.

However, the more the pressure cranks up, the less Ennis appears, at least publicly, fazed by the hype swirling around her.

"Obviously I want to do well because it is the last big championships, barring the indoors, before the Olympics next year, so it would be great to come out here and perform really well," she added.

"It would give you that boost. As you do well you do have more self belief in yourself and do view things a bit differently and believe that you can do it once you’ve done it before.

"To win gold would obviously be an amazing position to be in going into the Olympics.

"Last time in Berlin it was a great competition for me and I led from start to finish and I had a nice cushion but then for the Europeans last year Dobrynska was chasing me the whole way.

"Then I imagine this year is going to be even closer and next year closer again because that is the shape that people are in.

"I don’t expect it to be a walk in the park by any means, it’s going to be tough. I didn’t expect it to be like that in Berlin because I’d come into the season off the back of an injury but it was nice to have that cushion. But then last year was close and I imagine this year will be too."

Ennis has enjoyed a near perfect build up to Daegu, scorching to a new 100m hurdles personal best in Loughborough last week while she also equalled her shot best at the Aviva National Championships in Birmingham.

And her 6790 score in Gotzis earlier this year leads the world rankings although Russia's Tatyana Chernova, the Olympic bronze medallist, is not far behind after a recent massive personal best in the Czech Republic.

"All I can do is train hard and get into the best possible shape that I can and I feel like I am in that position now," adds Ennis.

"Obviously you never know because you can be in the best shape of your life and then things can go wrong.

"I know I am in the shape to do it but it’s just about putting the pieces together now to hopefully get that gold medal.

"I think there are four or five other girls who are all in good shape and they have improved on last year and seem to be keeping improving."

Jess Ennis has been selected for the Aviva GB&NI Team and is at an Aviva funded preparation camp in Ulsan, Korea. Aviva's support, both at home and abroad, is helping the team prepare to compete at their best. To find out more, go to aviva.co.uk/athletics or follow us on Twitter @AvivaAthletics

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