ATHLETICS

Jessica Ennis-Hill fired out a warning to her Olympic heptathlon rivals by running her second-fastest 100 metres hurdles time at the Anniversary Games in London last night.

The 30-year-old, back at the Olympic Stadium where she memorably took gold at London 2012, clocked 12.76sec to finish third and qualify for the final.

It smashed her season’s best of 13.10sec andwasher fastest time since the London Games, when she ran 12.54.

It was also a clear sign the Sheffield athlete is nearly back to her best, two years after giving birth to her son, Reggie, and

“Smashed her season’s best of 13.10sec”

despite an Achilles problem earlier in the season.

Ennis-Hill’s huge smile when the time flashed up on the scoreboard told its own story.

Canada’s Brianne Theisen-Eaton, the world leader in the heptathlon this year, will know that the Briton, who last month recorded her best heptathlon score since London 2012 with 6,733 points, is likely tonowbe thewoman to beat in Rio.

The newly-laid track at the Olympic Stadium was clearly super quick and, in near-perfect conditions, Great Britain’s women’s 4x100m relay team also made a significant statement of intent ahead of the Olympics by setting a national record and the fastest time in the world this year.

The quartet of Asha Philip, DesireeHenry, Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita claimed a dominant victory in 41.81, taking 0.29 off the previous British record, set last year.

TheHolland team which beat Britain to gold at the recent European championships in Amsterdam failed to finish.

Scot Laura Muir ran a fine race to win the 1,500 metres race in a British record time of 3:57.4.

Meanwhile, Mo Farah insists all he wants is to be able to compete against clean athletes as the spectre ofdopingthreatens to overshadow the Rio Olympics.

The 33-year-old races for the final time before the defence of his 5,000 and 10,000m titles in Brazil when he returns to the Olympic Stadium, scene of his twin golds four years ago, to compete over the shorter distance at the Anniversary Games today.

Farah joined Usain Bolt in backing the decision to keep Russian track and field athletes out of the games, with the Court of Arbitration for Sport upholding the suspension imposed by the IAAF because of state-sponsored doping.