BATTLE OF THE BRITISH SIX-PACK GIRLS
BRITAIN’S golden girls Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katarina Johnson-Thompson yesterday began their battle for the women’s heptathlon title. If neither gets injured, they will settle the medal tonight. Here, JANE FRYER pits them head to head – or should that be six-pack to six-pack?
JESSICA ENNIS-HILL
THIRTY years old, 5ft 4in, weighs 9st and was born in Sheffield.
WHO’S HER GUY?
SHE is married to her childhood sweetheart, construction worker Andy Hill, with whom she has a two-year-old son, Reggie, and a chocolate Labrador, Myla. She wants a bigger family, but only after retiring from athletics.
ATHLETIC PEDIGREE
HER father Vinnie, a decorator from Jamaica, sprinted at school while her social worker mother Alison did high jump – but neither showed great prowess.
The Olympian insists, however, that her mother is ‘really competitive’ – even over insignificant things such as who has made a nicer sandwich.
She was a ‘small’ child, and says athletics was her ‘revenge’ on bullies. Her first athletics victory was in 1996 at an event in Sheffield, where she won a pair of trainers. Athletics star Toni Minichiello has been her coach since she was 13 years old.
TRAINING SCHEDULE
FOUR hours’ hard training every morning, six days a week, plus additional sessions at home. She clocks a total of 22 hours a week.
STRONGEST DISCIPLINE
SHE excels at throwing events and the 100m hurdles, in which her personal best is 12.54 seconds (compared with Miss Johnson Thompson’s 13.37 seconds). Heptathlon personal best: 6,955 points.
LEAST FAVOURITE EVENT
THE 800m. ‘It’s painful and horrible,’ she says. ‘I’d rather they swapped it for tennis.’
CAREER HIGH POINT(S)
WINNING the heptathlon gold medal at the London Olympics with a British and Commonwealth record score of 6,955 points. She also stormed back against the odds, just a year after giving birth, to win heptathlon gold at the World Championships last year.
CAREER LOW POINT(S)
TRYING to regain her fitness after Reggie’s birth, when she says she was ‘mentally fatigued’ and that ‘doing those events after having a baby is tough for your body’. Also, not having her world heptathlon silver upgraded to gold in 2011, despite winner Tatyana Chernova subsequently failing a drugs test.
MOTIVATIONAL TOOLS
MUSIC – particularly by Massive Attack, the Spice Girls and the rapper Jay Z.
OFF THE TRACK
SHE likes shopping, cooking and watching medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. She supports Sheffield United FC and, for a while, one of the stands at Bramall Lane stadium was named after her.
Last year, the club said it was renaming the stand after a sponsorship deal with estate agent Redbrik – Miss Ennis-Hill had said she wanted her name to be removed if the club resigned player Ched Evans, who is facing a retrial for rape. Evans went on to sign for Chesterfield.
FAVOURITE FOODS
SWEET potatoes, fish and chicken – with the odd bar of chocolate. She was once too shy to buy a fish supper, saying: ‘There was a poster of me. I couldn’t go in.’
ON HERSELF
‘I’M very impatient. I get frustrated and want to be better than I am. But I don’t necessarily show it.’
‘I’ve just got to hold everything together. I know that I’ve done this before and that I can do it again.’
ON HER RIVAL
‘KAT’S coming into great form and her jumping has been brilliant.’
MEDALS/RECORDS AND GONGS
TITLES: Olympics 2012; World Championships 2009, 2015; World Indoor Championships 2010; European Junior Championships 2005. She was made a CBE in 2013.
SPONSORSHIP AND PUBLICITY
SHE has lucrative sponsorship deals with Adidas, BP, Omega watches, Sky Sports, Santander, skincare brand Olay and insurer Vitality, and has appeared in numerous TV commercials.
GLAMOUR RATING: 9/10
SHE has appeared in Cosmopolitan magazine and a rather steamy shoot for GQ. She says: ‘I am feminine, but I’m strong. A lot of 14 or 15-year-old girls think it’s one or the other.’
SIX-PACK RATING: 9/10
WELL, she has had a baby!
LEAST LIKELY TO SAY
‘I’M sick of nappies and running. Someone get me a cocktail.’
KATARINA JOHNSON-THOMPSON
TWENTY-three years old, 6ft, weighs 10st 10lb and was born in Liverpool.
WHO’S HER GUY?
HER boyfriend is Nick Bright, a Radio 1Xtra presenter, and she lives with two pet dachshunds, Chorizo and Bronx.
ATHLETIC PEDIGREE
HER mother Tracy was a showgirl who toured the world and met her 6ft 1in Bahamian father Ricardo on her travels.
Miss Johnson-Thompson started ballet when she was barely out of nappies, and was good enough to try out for the Royal Ballet, as well as playing football for Everton FC. She only took up athletics as something to enjoy away from the pressures of her main pursuits ballet and football. She excelled immediately.
Her first major win was the World Youth Championships in Athletics in Brixen, Italy, 2009 where she won the gold medal in the heptathlon.
TRAINING SCHEDULE
SHE says she trains less than other heptathletes – just four days a week, once a day. She also works out in a specialist body-building gym near her home.
STRONGEST DISCIPLINE
SHE is best at long jump (her personal best is 6.93m, compared to Miss Ennis-Hill’s 6.63m) and the high jump (she stunningly broke the British record yesterday, with 1.98m) and 200m (22.79sec to Miss Ennis-Hill’s 22.83sec). Heptathlon personal best: 6,682 points.
LEAST FAVOURITE EVENT
THE javelin.
CAREER HIGH POINT
SHE surpassed expectations to finish 15th in the London Olympics heptathlon in 2012, when she was just 19.
CAREER LOW POINT(S)
THE World Championships in Beijing last summer, when she recorded three foul jumps in the long jump and crashed out as a result.
MOTIVATIONAL TOOLS
SHE kept a photo of the third foul in the Beijing long jump as her computer screen saver to motivate her.
She also watches the film Race, the story of black American athlete Jesse Owens (four-times Olympic gold medallist in front of Hitler at the 1936 Games).
She also relies on a bit of personal grooming, saying before the Games: ‘Feeling good is key to performance.’
OFF THE TRACK
SHE likes watching box sets, particularly epic fantasy Game Of Thrones.
FAVOURITE FOODS
SCRAMBLED eggs on toast, spinach – and sweets. She says: ‘September is the only month I can drink alcohol and eat what I like. It’s the end of the season – I let the diet go.’
ON HERSELF
‘HOPE doesn’t get you everywhere. For a long time I thought it was all down to dedication and visualising doing well – that worked for a bit, but then it stopped. I’ve realised you have to be more practical and mature to make things actually happen.’
ON HER RIVAL
‘[JESSICA] can be beaten, but she’s looking back to her best. I want to be able to beat the best and that’s what she’s got on me — experience. We are all athletes and trying to achieve our dreams. I have that belief I can beat her.’
MEDALS/RECORDS AND GONGS
THE European Indoor Championships 2015; World Junior Championships 2012 (long jump); European U23 Championships 2013; World Youth Championships 2009.
SPONSORSHIP AND PUBLICITY
HER sponsors include Nike, Nissan Micra and SSE.
GLAMOUR RATING: 7/10
SHE has done a shoot for Vogue and been named, slightly less excitingly, as the face of paint brand Dulux’s Colour of the Year.
SIX-PACK RATING: 10/10
IT looks like she has rocks under the skin of her stomach. Incredible.
LEAST LIKELY TO SAY
‘I DON’T mind who wins – isn’t it all about the taking part?’