Jess can get our team off to a flyer

Aug 14 2009 The Journal

IN what should be an exciting eight days of athletics, we get off to a great start at this year’s IAAF World Championships with our two golden girls in action straight away.

In the heptathlon, our world No 1 ranked athlete and hot favourite for a medal, Jess Ennis, takes centre stage.

This is just the start we need for the championships. Jess can get us off to a flyer. If she can get on the rostrum on Sunday evening, it will help bring confidence and belief to the team, which is really important. The heptathlon is relatively weak this year. What with injuries and post-Beijing comedown, some of the athletes are not in such good shape, so she has a great chance of a medal.

Yes, there is a lot of pressure on her because she is our only athlete ranked number one in the world and she has never been to a championship with a chance of winning, let alone a medal. Now everyone is hanging a medal round her neck, but she has a very good head on her shoulders and I am confident she won’t buckle under the pressure. She has looked really solid this year, but it will be new territory going into a championship she is expected to win. It would have been nice to see her get some high level of competition this summer, but it’s hard to criticise her when she is producing the performances she is at the moment.

Also tomorrow, we can watch our Olympic gold medallist and reigning world champion Christine Ohuruogu in action.

She was good early season and looked in great shape at the Manchester city centre event. In the winter, she wanted to pick up her speed to try and get to a low 49s, maybe even a high 48s, finish time. Then she got ill and ran under par in the European Team Championships and also in Oslo where she got well beaten by everyone because of hamstring problems. One thing that we know about Christine from Osaka 2007 is that she doesn’t have to have done very much to run herself into great shape and if she is in good shape she will perform. If Christine is fit like she says she is, then she will be a contender, but I will put a question mark against her name until I see her heat tomorrow.

:: CHRISTINE Ohuruogo will be competing at the Aviva British Grand Prix, Gateshead August 31. Tickets are available by phone on 08000 556 056 or online at www.uka.org.uk