Interview: Jessica Ennis, athlete

Published on Saturday 5 December 2009 20:51

JESSICA Ennis's combination of talent and charm will make her a household name by 2012, writes Paul Forsyth

IN THE champagne bar at Twickenham last month, where England were about to play New Zealand in one of rugby's autumn internationals, a corporate gent was making small talk to the woman alongside. When she told him what her profession was, he seemed to be impressed. "Athletics?" he foamed between gulps of Bollinger. "You should keep at it. If you work hard enough, you could be the next Jessica Ennis."

Of course, his new acquaintance was Jessica Ennis, and she wasn't offended in the slightest. Even Jessica Ennis doesn't feel like Jessica Ennis right now. Her gold medal in the heptathlon at this year's World Championships in Berlin has triggered a whirlwind of social engagements that she is still coming to terms with. The newfound "darling of British athletics" has found herself in the strangest of places lately.

Like the MOBOs, where she presented N-Dubz with the best-album award. Or the society party in London, where she was pictured with Cindy Crawford. Best of all were the Cosmo awards, where she was named Ultimate Sports Woman, taken to 10 Downing Street, and allowed to meet the great and the good of light entertainment. Vernon Kay and Fearne Cotton were also there. "I'm a big fan of theirs," she says. "I went along with a friend, and we just kind of stood there saying, oh my God, it's Dannii Minogue."

The Grazia-reading devotee of Coronation Street and America's Next Top Model, whose favourite present in the afterglow of Berlin was a Mulberry bag from Sheffield City Council, must wonder if she has died and gone to heaven. After Rebecca Adlington 12 months ago, she is this year's girl next door, the fun-loving shopaholic who has shot to prominence with her winning smile. Marketing experts predict that, by the 2012 Olympic Games, she will be a millionaire.

She certainly hit the jackpot in 2009. After a miserable 2008, when a triple stress fracture to her right ankle caused her to miss the Beijing Olympics, Ennis has – if you'll pardon the expression – come on leaps and bounds since. In Glasgow the other day to promote next month's Aviva International at the Kelvin Hall, she admitted that her world had been turned on its head by that little circle of gold that she keeps on her bedside. "Mum says not to tell people where it is in case someone breaks in and steals it. I'm always kind of looking at it, making sure it's real and stuff. It's all just really, really surreal. Mad world. Are we awake?"

The dizzying joyride will continue next weekend when she is among the contenders for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. The 23-year-old is one of the bookies' favourites on a shortlist that includes Jenson Button, Ryan Giggs and Andy Murray. "Even though I'm so proud of what I have achieved, I'm like, should I really be in there? So many people have achieved amazing things this year, loads of world champions like Tom Daley. He is only 15, and a world champion. I mean that's just phenomenal. It's a real honour to be included."

Ennis, though, isn't the outsider she claims to be. Button is favourite, but Formula One hasn't had the best of years, and he wouldn't have won without Brawn. There are six world champions on the shortlist, but none has the versatility of Ennis, who excels in not one, but seven events. And before she is dismissed as a jack of all trades that can master none, let it not be forgotten that she is joint holder of the British women's high-jump record. Not bad for someone who stands only 5ft 4in tall, and was nicknamed The Tadpole by her erstwhile rival, Kelly Sotherton. "I can't say I like that," she says. "I don't think I'm ever going to get rid of it."

The heptathlon is a punishing test, mentally as well as physically. At the big events, Ennis rises at five, and doesn't return to her hotel until 11 at night, between which there are umpteen challenges to meet and prepare for. And day-to-day training is a delicate balancing act designed to nurture her diverse strengths. "If you go into the gym and get absolutely massive so that you can throw well in the shot put, you won't be able to jump very high," she explains.

It is also a sport in which Britain needs success. Ennis's coach, Tony Minichiello, believes that the country would produce more elite athletes if children were encouraged to diversify. "There ought to be more combined-event competition," he says. "Too many kids go down the track, join a particular group, and find themselves destined to be a distance runner. We pigeonhole far too early."

Ennis is one of just six British women to have won a world title in athletics. She is also keeping up a proud UK tradition that has stretched from Mary Peters and Daley Thompson to Denise Lewis and Dean Macey. She is unlikely ever to threaten the heptathlon world record – set by the American, Jackie Joyner-Kersee – but with Carolina Kluft now retired, the prospect of multiple medals is realistic.

One, in particular, would secure her a place in history. Already she has been billed as the "face of London 2012", which compounds the pressure on her to win gold at the Olympic Games. "That's going to be a completely different ball game because it's at home," she says. "All the British athletes will be thrust into the media spotlight permanently, and the expectation between now and then will be difficult to deal with."

Minichiello knows she can handle it. What pleased him most about the 6,731 points she won in Berlin was that she led from the front. After the biggest achievement of her career, he played Ennis a video of her performance, and picked out the areas in which she could improve. "He wouldn't be a good coach if he didn't spot all these things, but I was like, can't I just enjoy being world champion?"

Minichiello anticipates an improvement in all seven events, but mostly in the long jump, which has needed work since injury forced her to take off from the other foot. Progress, he says, will only be achieved by drawing a line under the world championships, and moving on. She will do that, but not yet. Not for another week or so anyway.

Tickets for the Aviva International match at Kelvin Hall on 30 January can be bought online at www.uka.org.uk or by phone on 0800 0556056.

BBC AWARD: THE ODDS

Jenson Button....................................................................5/6

Ryan Giggs..........................................................................5/2

Jessica Ennis......................................................................9/2

David Haye........................................................................10/1

Andrew Strauss................................................................20/1

Mark Cavendish...............................................................40/1

Beth Tweddle....................................................................50/1

Tom Daley........................................................................100/1

Andy Murray...................................................................200/1

Phillips Idowu.................................................................200/1

Odds supplied by Ladbrokes