London 2012’s iconic gold will always take some beating but Jess Ennis-Hill says being crowned world champion 13 months after giving birth is right up there with the best moments of her career.
It was touch and go whether the 29-year-old would even compete in Beijing having only returned to training in the Autumn.
But she produced a series of clinical performances to take the title in just her first major competition since she won the Olympic title back in 2012.
The winning performance came in the 800m where she took victory in her heat in 2:10.13 and finished with 6,669 points overall – Canada’s Brianne Theisen-Eaton 115 points behind in second.
“This is definitely one of the greatest moments of my career, I still can’t believe it,” said Ennis-Hill.
“Me and Toni (coach Minichiello) spoke about coming here, and we only wanted to come if I was able to compete for a medal.
“We spoke about the bronze medal and that it would be amazing for a silver medal, but we never spoke about gold. I kind of thought it was a little beyond me this year. “When I look back now and think it has taken a while to get in great shape.
“It’s hard at the beginning when you’ve got a newborn and you’re adjusting to everything, just having a supportive family and Toni and the team around me really believed in me.
“I think I have a different perspective and you do things for different reasons and I think it has helped. I know a couple of athlete mums like Jo Pavey and I hope I am an inspiration to other mums.”
For a while it looked like it would be a British one-two as Katarina Johnson-Thompson made early headway but saw her hopes of a medal destroyed after failing to register a mark in the long jump.
Elsewhere Laura Muir booked her spot in Tuesday’s 1500m final after she clocked 4:07.95 to take third in her heat – however there was disappointment for teammate Laura Weightman who had to withdraw following a fall in qualifying.
“I came out of this heat really, really well and it was one of my best races tactically,” Muir said.
“I just need to take confidence in that and then it’s just a matter of putting a great race together.”
In the men’s hammer there was disappointment for Nick Miller after he finished down in 11th and in the men’s 100m neither Richard Kilty or CJ Ujah could progress to the showpiece final. © Sportsbeat 2015