Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis-Hill headline British squad for worlds

London: Double Olympic gold medallist Mo Farah and heptathlon star Jessica Ennis-Hill will headline the British squad for next month’s world championships in Moscow, British Athletics announced on Tuesday.

Farah and Ennis-Hill were two of the biggest successes of the London Games, and the former has been named for both the 5,000m and 10,000m events.

Ennis-Hill, however, has endured an injury-plagued season that has seen her absent from the track as she bids to shake off concerns over her ankle.

James Dasaolu, who became the second fastest Briton ever when he clocked 9.91sec to win the British championships last weekend, will be joined in the 100m by former drugs cheat Dwain Chambers and Harry Aikines-Aryeetey.

Reigning world junior 100m champion Adam Gemili was listed for the 200m after failing to clock the qualifying standard for the shorter sprint.

Participants in the men’s long jump will be announced at a later date in a bid to allow Olympic champion Greg Rutherford enough time to bounce back from a hamstring injury.

Ennis-Hill, who has not competed since winning heptathlon gold at the London 2012 Olympics, also withdrew from meetings in Edinburgh and Oslo last month, citing a stiff left Achilles, before missing a multi-event meeting in Tallinn a fortnight ago because of concerns over her ankle.

A UK Athletics statement last week had conceded that Ennis-Hill’s progress had been “slow” but said that her coach, Toni Minichiello, and the British team doctors were “optimistic” that she would be in shape to compete in Moscow.

“She is following a comprehensive rehabilitation programme, working with the British Athletics medical team and her physiotherapist Alison Rose,” it read. “Progress is slow but her coach, Toni Minichiello, and the wider medical team remain optimistic at this stage that she will be in shape to compete in the world championships in August.”

Officials are playing down Ennis-Hill’s latest setback, and the fact she left it to the last minute before pulling out on the eve of the British championships, which took place last weekend.

Even so, with the world championships starting in less than four weeks, the news is hardly ideal. If one event is considered too much for Ennis-Hill’s body at this stage, then the prospect of her being able to produce her very best over seven events of gruelling heptathlon competition in Moscow must be called into question.

For now her team are still hopeful that she will be able to ease herself back before then, ideally with a 100m hurdles in Monaco next Friday or if not at the anniversary games in London at the end of this month.