Ennis says world record may be gold standard

Although her training was interrupted by a foot injury last month, Ennis remains favourite to defeat the three 2008 Olympic heptathlon medallists Nataliya Dobrynska, Hyleas Fountain and Tatyana Chernova.

The 24-year-old world heptathlon champion was in blistering form before the setback, achieving eight personal bests in the space of a month – but her rivals have also shown vintage form this year.

Dobrynska has posted a Ukrainian record of 4,778 points; Fountain narrowly missed the American best ever mark when tallying 4,731pts; while Chernova of Russia tops the world rankings with a score of 4,855pts. Ennis never planned testing herself over five events before Doha, but if she can match the individual performances she achieved in January which total 5,033pts, she would be a clear winner.

Certainly she should surpass the personal best of 4,716pts she set when as an almost unknown multi-eventer she placed sixth at the European Championships three years ago.

When a score of over 5,000pts was suggested to her at yesterday's press conference, Ennis was very cautious to state she would break the world record. At the same time, however, she did not dismiss it as unachievable.

"It would be great do personal bests in every event and really make a good effort to get that score," said Ennis who if successful would erase Russian Irina Belova's 18-year-old record of 4,991pts.

Ennis also needs no reminding that achieving the feat would bolster her prize winnings by a $50,000 (33,220) bonus in addition to $40,000 (26,500) for winning the gold medal. However, the Yorkshirewoman, who has planned her tactics meticulously with coach Toni Minichiello, is well aware that, with all five events taking place in just over eight hours, it will be a physically tiring encounter.

Ennis said: "Realistically I hope to make an improvement and score a personal best and if that gets close to the world record that would be absolutely fantastic. I'll concentrate on each event at a time and see where that gets me. I know what I want to achieve – but I'll keep that to myself and just get on with it."

Ennis, with Phillips Idowu having pulled out of defending his triple jump title for personal reasons, is regarded as Great Britain's most likeliest gold medallist along with Dwain Chambers and Jenny Meadows.

Chambers' hopes of winning the 60 metres title received an unexpected boost when US champion Ivory Williams received a three-month ban after testing positive for marijuana after winning last month's US trial and was dropped from their team.

Meanwhile, Meadows, last summer's surprise world 800m outdoor bronze medallist in Berlin, starts her campaign with the praises of UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee ringing in her ears. Referring to her global emergence, he said: "I think she is an athlete who has proved that you can take part for a number of years and be basically invisible and then make a decision that those days are over."