THE CROWN DUEL
So can champion Ennis-Hill fight off rising star Katarina?
THE LAST time Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Jessica Ennis-Hill competed against each other at an Olympics it was a case of a young pretender in awe of a woman whose face adorned 50ft billboards across London.
Johnson-Thompson finished 15th behind Ennis-Hill, who coped with the enormous pressure of expectation to take the heptathlon gold medal. Today, when they take to the bright blue track at Rio’s Joao Havelange stadium, the dynamic of their relationship is much altered.
Johnson-Thompson believes wholeheartedly she can dethrone Ennis-Hill, 30, and prevent her becoming the third woman in history to defend an Olympic title after having a baby in the intervening four-year period.
‘When I was young there weren’t rankings on the internet so you didn’t have a clue how you compared,’ said Johnson-Thompson, 23.
‘It was a case of going into the unknown. I don’t know when I started to believe I could be the best in the world. I remember coming away from London and thinking I had no chance for Rio. I was slapped with the reality that it’s a big world out there and I had a lot of work to do.’
Her rise was rapid thereafter. She finished fifth at the World Championships in Moscow in 2013, aged just 20, and last year broke EnnisHill’s British record in the pentathlon to win gold at the European Indoor Championships. But it all fell apart at the World Championships in Beijing last summer, with three fouls in the long jump.
Johnson-Thompson jokes that she won’t be welcome back in her native Liverpool if she does the same again. She is used to good-natured ribbing at a specialist bodybuilding gym near the house she shares with her two sausage dogs and occasionally her boyfriend Nick Bright, a Radio 1Xtra presenter.
‘The gym is priceless to us. It’s our second home,’ said her coach Mike Holmes. ‘There’s a bit of banter. One guy came up to Kat and told her she had ruined his evening last summer. He said, “You do it again and you can train at another gym”.’
‘It was genuine though,’ Johnson-Thompson laughed. ‘He said it with a straight face. Being from Liverpool it’s important to have a sense of humour.’
Free of the injuries that have blighted her over the last two years, Johnson-Thompson believes she can beat both EnnisHill and Brianne Theisen-Eaton, the Canadian who tops the world rankings. She is taking inspiration from her beloved Liverpool FC.
‘As a Liverpool fan I am eternally optimistic because of 2005 in Istanbul,’ she said.
‘On my USB stick out in Rio I’ve got a copy of the Jesse Owens film Race and I think that will motivate me. I think the way he came through adversity and against all the odds is incredible and hopefully I can relate to that.’
Ennis-Hill’s coach Toni Minichiello thinks the heptathlon medals will
be decided by who has the mental strength to hold it together under immense pressure, something his athlete is renowned for.
‘It will be more a test of character than physical abilities,’ he told Sportsmail.
‘I think it’s who can produce consistent performances over all seven events. Any medal for Jess this time round is a success. To ask Jess at 30 and after pregnancy to score more than her personal best of 6,955 is probably asking a bit much but I’d hope for a season’s best which is more than 6,733. If you don’t get on the podium with that you would be thinking you got beat by some exceptional talent.’
After London 2012 many expected Ennis-Hill to retire and even more so when she announced she was pregnant in January 2014. ‘It’s been an incredible journey,’ she said. ‘It’s just so surreal to think this time four years ago I was winning my first Olympic gold medal.
‘Now I’m here again and so much has happened in these past four years. There have been some real lows and it has been hard work and challenges every bit of the way.’
Ennis-Hill could become the first British woman in history to defend an Olympic title in athletics.
‘I know how difficult it’s going to be,’ she said.
‘I keep hearing all these stats flying around about the fact no British woman has done it before. I see it as a massive challenge. It feels like the odds are against me because it’s a huge thing to achieve.
‘I relish this opportunity to go out there and see if I can do something really amazing.’