Ennis-Hill only chose to compete in Beijing following encouraging performances at the Anniversary Games in London last month, declaring that she would only leave her family behind if she thought she could win a medal.
Theisen-Eaton could come nowhere near the 6,808 points she had recorded this season, taking -silver with a score of 6,554, while Katarina Johnson-Thompson was left looking up from the foot of the standings after three fouls in the long jump. “But here, juggling all my mummy duties, has been even harder”.
“This time a year ago I’d just had my son and now I am world champion”.
Child or not, Jessica Ennis-Hill proved that she will always be the mother of the heptathlon.
There is still a long way to go when it comes to sorting out the sport’s serious issues, but she believes newly-elected IAAF president Lord Coe can do just that.
“I’m lost for words”.
“At that point, it was all-or-nothing for me and I had to give it my all”.
A crushed and tearful Johnson-Thompson said yesterday: “This is the last place I wanted to be right now”.
Ennis-Hill’s odds to win Sports Personality of the Year were slashed, from 12/1 overnight to 2/1, as she completed her seven events 120 points ahead of her nearest rival, pre-race favourite Brianne Theisen Eaton.
She had put herself into a commanding position after the long jump and javelin, jumping for a season’s best of 6.43m, throwing 42.51m.
“It’s really hard but they’re definitely like that”, she said, holding her hands together level.
While other great Olympians such as Mo Farah and Chris Hoy have dominated the headlines in the last few years, there is no denying Ennis-Hill’s extreme awesomeness.
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.
It was for Ennis-Hill.
It was hard for anyone watching not to feel enormously sorry for the young Briton who looked – and indeed still does look – to have the multi-eventing world at her feet.
“It was a reflection on the whole year really, happy that I’d gone through everything”, Ennis-Hill.
She is the Olympic champion who stormed to the top of world athletics at London 2012. However, a fantastic 200m run from Johnson-Thompson saw her coming first above Ennis-Hill and back in medal contention. With both competitors having a full-time training regime during Ennis-Hill’s break, and with Johnson-Thompson matching Ennis-Hill on some personal records, it was only natural to wonder whether the 29-year-old could retain her title. However it was her solid, uncluttered consistency which shone through the first two days of the 2015 championships.