The 29-year-old Olympic champion built an unassailable lead over the first six events as she cruised to victory.

With the Olympics to come next year in Rio, this result is very encouraging in terms of her defending the gold medal she won in London.

“I can’t believe it”, British athletics’ poster girl gasped after winning back the title she last held in 2009.

But her high-risk strategy backfired as she fouled her first two attempts and was red-flagged again despite landing a huge third jump, leaving her devastated and prompting an official protest from British officials which was quickly withdrawn.

But nothing should detract from Ennis-Hill’s extraordinary effort given that as recently as November she was unable to lift a 20-kilo bar above her head as her body had still to recover from the rigours of childbirth. However, her World Championships are not over, and she will be determined to make up for her heptathlon disappointment when she goes in the long jump on Thursday.

In the blink of an eye Johnson-Thompson saw all hopes of a medal crumble away and she plummeted to the bottom of the leaderboard – a position that she would remain in until the bitter end.

Johnson-Thompson’s frustration was one of few negatives for Britain on the second day of competition, with team captain Martyn Rooney leading by example.

Ennis-Hill’s gold follows Mo Farah’s 10,000m success on Saturday 22 August.

For once she had travelled to a major championships not expecting to win gold and overnight Katarina Johnson-Thompson, the Liverpudlian young pretender to Ennis-Hill’s enduring quality, had been snapping at her heels.

“I had to know”.

There even appeared a chance that she could topple Ennis-Hill, only to fail to score any points in the long jump – an event she will compete in at the Bird’s Nest later this week.

Canada’s Commonwealth Games victor Brianne Theisen-Eaton, the title favourite, settled for silver (6,554) while Latvian Laura Ikauniece-Admidina claimed bronze (6,516). Ennis-Hill isn’t so much a sports star as a superhero.

Not only did Olympian Jessica Enni-Hill jump into her strict training regime again, but she then achieved super human status by winning a gold medal just one year on from becoming a mum.

Johnson-Thompson endured entirely contrasting emotions as the youngster jogged around the two laps of the track after her long jump disaster ensured she plummeted down the standings and out of contention.

She is the Olympic champion who stormed to the top of world athletics at London 2012.

“So I hope I am an inspiration to other mums that you can go out and do it, and do both really well”.