Abu Dhabi: The Olympics may be over for another four years but British women’s heptathlon gold medallist Jessica Ennis insists she will ride the wave of London 2012’s success all the way to Rio.
The 26-year-old athlete captured the hearts of a nation in August when she broke a British and Commonwealth record of 6,995 points to claim gold in the seven-stage event, 306 points clear of her nearest rival.
Her triumph prompted authorities in her hometown of Sheffield to paint post boxes gold and Sheffield United, her local football team, even renamed their Bramall Lane Stand after her.
Speaking to Gulf News on the red carpet of Friday’s Chequered Flag Ball — ahead of this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix — the 26-year-old stunner waved off talk of her going through an anti-climax and said the summer had only increased her appetite for training.
Asked if she was in a post-Olympic lull, Ennis replied: “No, not at all. I’ve been asked that so many times and it’s literally the best high. I’m still very much kind of floating up there and enjoying this year after all the hard work I’ve put in over these past few months.
“It’s definitely sunk in now,” Ennis said of her Olympic success. “It seems like it was so long ago but it was a brilliant summer for all of the athletes and its really nice to get to see some of these events [the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix] and get to support some of our other British sports people around the world.”
“It was a brilliant year, London just put on such a great show and we were representing females across the board and British athletes were just at the top of their game so it was an incredible summer for all of us,” she said.
With next year’s World Championships in Moscow to look forward to, Ennis added: “It’s definitely hard, when you come back to training at the beginning of the winter season, to focus and essentially start from the beginning again. But now I’m back into the swing of things and training hard.
“I had about six weeks off, had a holiday and did some normal things like relaxing with friends. So I’ve had a bit of time away from the tracks, which is nice and now I’m slowly heading back into training.”
“I’m having a week off this week, which is nice, but I’ve done about five weeks training and I’m looking ahead to next year already but still with a smile on my face with what happened this year.
“Getting a good solid winter in ahead of the world championships next year will be main focus for the short term and then I’ll be looking forward to four years’ time, which seems a very long time away but it should be great in Rio.”
