http://bit.ly/oISrW9 Equestrian activity By Dainis Matisons

Sport centre KLEISTI, Riga, Latvia

'It's just a massive relief to me," Jessica Ennis states with a wry minor laugh as she anticipates defending her world heptathlon title in South Korea. From Monday morning, start with the 100 metres hurdles in the heat and humidity of Daegu, right up until the closing draining 800m on Tuesday evening, Ennis will offer you the clearest chance of a British gold medal in the last major monitor function just before the London Olympics.
Nevertheless her relief has nothing to do with her standing as the favourite to get gold at the two events. Ennis, perceived as the most attractive and successful applicant to be exalted as "the deal with" of London 2012, is so reserved that the real source of her delight and respite stems from the fact that she has not been named captain of the GB crew in Daegu.
"I was asked by Charles van Commenee [the head coach at Uk Athletics] to be captain at last year's European championships in Barcelona," Ennis says. "I'm glad he is not asked me once more for the worlds. I am considerably happier obtaining on with my very own point due to the fact I never specially like standing in entrance of my peers and declaring [Ennis breaks into a breathy Americanised voice] 'C'mon, you men, you gotta take this option!' I'm certainly not very good at people sorts of speeches. I did perform on my speech at the Europeans, but it was really brief and I was so anxious. I wasn't a lot very good."
The 25-calendar year-old shakes her head cheerfully at her obvious ineptitude as a motivational speaker and team leader. "I was set to shame by the actuality Charles also asked Linford Christie to make a speech, simply because he'd won the Barcelona Olympics [in 1992]. They showed this incredible video clip and then Linford stood up and gave his speech and read out a really good poem he had created. I then had to stroll to the entrance and adhere to that and I was like: 'Oh, my gosh … ' So, yeah, he ruined it for me."
Is there a opportunity that Van Commenee, in his hard-minded way, may inquire Ennis to believe the function again up coming calendar year? "I suppose so," Ennis says hesitantly, seeking briefly terrified by the prospect. "But Charles likes to have different … um, I've absent completely blank at the thought of it … what is the term?"
It is a thing as basic as "captains"? Ennis laughs loudly. "That's it! Captains! Charles likes to have diverse captains. I'm genuinely hoping I've received my captaincy factor out of the way."
This is not quite the go-acquiring persona the typical "face" of an Olympic Games is meant to flash to the planet. Ennis smiles demurely when asked if she's cozy in the even grander public role that has been foisted on her. "I suppose 'the face' thing is a bit out of my manage. But it is a great position – to be concerned in a house Olympic Games – especially as I missed the previous 1 completely."
That apparently bland reply can't conceal the gritty determination underpinning Ennis's rise in the heptathlon. She was 21 when, in her very first globe championships, in Osaka in 2007, she shocked her then illustrious rivals by profitable all a few monitor activities and narrowly lacking a medal driving Kelly Sotherton, Lyudmyla Blonska and the majestic Carolina Kluft. Sotherton called her young crew-mate Tadpole, in a nickname dripping with disparagement, but Ennis revealed her expertise and resolve versus ladies who towered above her.
"They even now do. Only Margaret Simpson is smaller than me in the heptathlon. Most of the ladies are truly tall and strong and that is hardest to defeat in the shot put and javelin because the top of my release is a lot reduced. It was harder in 2007, simply because I was so young. But those world championships had been my initial big senior competitors and I felt inspired in opposition to Carolina, who is a lovely lady and so identified.
"We're extremely various. She's really expressive and you can see it in her face and when she hits herself. That tells you how a lot she would like it. I want it just as a lot, but I'm a lot more reserved and maintain it inside of."
Ennis was meant to be a significant medal contender at the 2008 Olympics – only to be devastated when, in Might that calendar year, in a schedule meeting in Götzis, Austria, she experienced 3 tension fractures in her appropriate foot. Her Olympic hopes were ruined. "It was a quite hard time and I felt really sulky," Ennis states. "I'd had a main injury in an Olympic yr and couldn't do a factor. I had to keep at home and relaxation my foot. But that's what made the 2009 worlds so a lot sweeter."
In an imperious exhibit in Berlin, Ennis became world champion as she won 4 of the 7 occasions and recorded a personal best of 6,731 details. She enhanced that mark to six,823 when winning the Europeans previous year. That sustained results, because the dejection of 2008, can make Ennis sound serenely philosophical. "I frequently wonder if I would have accomplished as a lot if I had made it to Beijing. Would I have had the very same hunger at the worlds in 2009? Would I have gone on to do what I did last year? So I wouldn't transform something."
This yr, obtaining experienced yet another foot injuries, Ennis has been tested yet again. "It was the left ankle this time – and I was anxious. I now use my left foot for my long jump take-off and I've acquired no other legs to adjust. I felt this 1 go in February and it turned out to be much more complex with aggravated tendons about the achilles.
"I missed the European indoors and when I went to Götzis in Might it was genuinely nerve-racking. Returning to the area where I'd injured myself in 2008 did play on my brain – especially as I was not positive I was suit enough to contend effectively. If I'd scored six,500 I would've been happy. But I surprised myself."
Recording personalized bests in the 200m and 800m, Ennis achieved a mark of six,790 – 251 details distinct of Tatyana Chernova, the Russian who won bronze at the 2008 Olympics. Ennis was even more ahead of her primary rival, the Ukrainian Nataliya Dobrynska, trouncing the Olympic champion by 458 factors.
"Dobrynska is nonetheless very sturdy," Ennis says. "She's also distinct. I keep in mind she only scored 6,100 in Götzis final calendar year, but she pushed me tough at the Europeans. Dobrynska is nonetheless the athlete to defeat in Daegu, but Chernova also scored 6,778 quickly following I beat her – so she's another one to observe. But, yeah, Götzis gave me enormous self-assurance."
Considering that then, Ennis has equalled her private very best in the shot set and, in her very last operate before Daegu, recorded her best time in the 100m hurdles at Loughborough. She has the seem of an assured globe champion – and this kind of belief contrasts with her diffident captaincy. Has she altered considerably considering that her 1st planet championship four years ago?
"I consider so," she says with an emphatic nod. "I've grown up a good deal and tasted real lifestyle. And I am just extremely pleased and stable in my existence. I'm proud of what I've achieved, but I really want to obtain a good deal far more. I get asked the very same issue in practically every single interview: 'How are you coping with the stress of 2012?' I have a stock solution but, inside, I just focus on the good issues in my specialist and personalized daily life.
"The big point for me was acquiring engaged to Andy last Christmas Eve. We would been together a long time so I realized the problem would pop up at some stage, but I was not expecting it to be really then. He did it in a lower-essential way – we have been just about to go out with his family for a meal. It was actually great and particular. We've acquired the wedding planned for 2013 and that will be a useful distraction following yr."
Ennis appears at her happiest when conversing about her engagement. "I do," she says, grinning. "Andy place up with me being sulky in 2008-09 and that's a actual test of your partnership. As an athlete it really is your complete daily life and you never know when you are coming again and it affects every little thing. Andy was outstanding then. He truly understood and assisted me survive it. It aids that we're in this kind of various professions. He is a site manager and works for a development firm. But he was constantly there to pay attention to me and we're still with each other – so I can't have been also undesirable."
After a day in which she has completed a collection of eco-driving assessments to help an initiative from BP Focus on Neutral, which allows motorists reduce their carbon footprints and preserve cash on fuel, Ennis shrugs in amusement. "I assumed I was a amazing driver, but I will have to tell Andy tonight I can be considerably much more effective – and help save us about £1,000 a calendar year."
In a a lot more troubling diversion she was mortified that the horse named following her, a two-calendar year-outdated thoroughbred named Jessica Ennis, was badly injured very last month. "I couldn't imagine it," she says. "It was a freak accident. She acquired spooked at Newmarket a few of days prior to she was meant to operate – and got hit by a vehicle. She's had an operation and they're going to see how [she] recovers. I just desire she's not even now bandaged up."
In her own fit and healthful condition, with confidence in her athletic prowess flowing, Ennis does not require any previous-moment motivational speeches. "I am going out to get," she states simply of her earth championship task. "But I am keeping it great and neat. Even if I do win I know subsequent year is the actually large one and so considerably can transform in twelve months. Even now, I am certainly heading out to acquire the two in Daegu and London. I am greater concentrating on that than functioning on yet another captain's speech."