Ennis-Hill, who gave birth to her son 13 months ago, offered 42.51m in the javelin and with 5705 points, will take an 86-point lead in to the last event, the 800 meters, in a Sunday evening session headlined by the battle between Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin for men’s 100m gold.

But while Ennis-Hill celebrated her second world championship and made plans to defend her Olympic title in Rio next year, she also had words of sympathy for teammate and rival Katarina Johnson-Thompson.

“Right before my first throw, I saw (British Athletes performance director) Neil Black come down to my coach”, an emotional Johnson-Thompson told the BBC about the appeal.

Jessica Ennis-Hill suggests that her new world heptathlon title is on a par with winning Olympic gold at London 2012.

“This year, juggling all my mummy duties and training, it has been so hard”.

“This time previous year I’d just had my son and now I am world champion”.

“Today is just about getting through the rounds”, she said, sporting long green hair and a sunflower headband.

Ennis-Hill has 4,990 points, 102 more than Brianne Theisen-Eaton of Canada, who moved into silver-medal position with a jump of 6.55 for a score of 4,888 points.

“I got a no-jump in the first round and that puts you on the back foot”, she explained.

The pair were competing against each other for the first time since the 2012 Olympics, which was Ennis-Hill’s last championship.

In the end, she won the race in some comfort.

In truth, that contest was totally one-sided, Ennis-Hill at the peak of her powers en route to a gold and Johnson-Thompson then a somewhat awestruck 19-year-old whose 15th place was barely noticed amid the fanfare for her team-mate. “I feel now that I’m a mom, I take a look at all of the mums … that return to work and work extremely arduous and I’ve a lot admiration and appreciation for a way onerous it’s”.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson broke down in tears as her hopes of a heptathlon medal at the World Championships in Beijing ended in disappointment.

“I had to complete the 800m if I wanted to go to the long jump. I can do my weights at home and I do them once Reggie’s gone to bed”, she said.

“It was a reflection on the whole year really, happy that I’d gone through everything”, Ennis-Hill. I couldn’t compete without knowing.

Ennis-Hill’s prospects improved further when Commonwealth champion Theisen-Eaton appeared to pick up an injury during the javelin.