Athletics: Joy turns to despair for Jessica Ennis as she relinquishes crown

Ennis went into the final event of the pentathlon at the World Indoor Championships trailing Olympic heptathlon champion Nataliya Dobrynska by a massive 93 points.

The 26-year-old did all she could by taking almost four and a half seconds off her indoor personal best in winning the 800 metres – and then saw her name flash up in first place on the scoreboard.

However, that was because Dobrynska’s score for the 800m had not yet been added to her total, a total which eventually read 5,013 points for a new world record.

Ennis had to settle for silver and a new personal best and British record of 4,965, with Lithuania’s Austra Skujyte in third and Russia’s Tatyana Chernova – who took Ennis’s world heptathlon title in Daegu last August – a distant fifth.

“I need to make sure I learn from these experiences, get it right and turn silver into gold this summer,” Ennis said in reference to the Olympic Games in London. As for thinking she had won, she added: “It’s the worst feeling in the world. I just had to run my heart out, my plan was to stay with [Karolina] Tyminska and I did that and just literally glanced up and saw my name in first position and thought I’ve won it and [then had] the excitement and then obviously the devastation to know I was second.

“There’s disappointment because I wanted to come here and retain my title but I had some good performances today, some things I need to go away and work on, but for a world record to win it obviously shows the standard is extremely high.

“Dobrynska has the knack of staying below par but being brilliant in Olympic year, coming out and breaking world records and winning gold medals. She’s in great form.”

Ennis led by 86 points after winning the 60m hurdles in 7.91secs – her second fastest time ever – and increased that lead to 109 following the high jump, despite only clearing 1.87m with her final attempt.

However, even a personal best of 14.79m in the shot was not enough to prevent her lead being slashed to just ten points before a sub-par performance in the long jump – where jumps of 6.19m and 6.18m were followed by a foul in the final round – left her 93 points behind Dobrynska, who won the long jump with 6.57m.

“That’s the nature of pentathlon and heptathlon. You have good events, you have bad events, it doesn’t always come together and that’s the key, getting everything to come together on those two days or that one day,” added Ennis.

“I believe things happen for a reason and hopefully that reason’s going to come clear later on in the year.”

If the Ennis-Chernova duel turned into a one-woman show for Dobrynska, the 3,000 face-off between British runner Mo Farah and American rival Bernard Lagat also failed to deliver.

Instead of reigning regally over the heat they shared, they had to scramble up to the line to secure their places in the final as five went for the line with four places available. Within a jumble of .30 seconds, Farah was second and Lagat was third.