Age: 25 (Born 28/1/1986)

Club: City of Sheffield

Coach: Toni Minichello


Event: Pentathlon and Heptathlon, and 100m hurdles
 
Career highlights:

Jessica Ennis is a world champion and gold medal material, already holding the World Heptathlon title in 2009 and the World Indoor Pentathlon in 2010. She’s also a European Champion with 6823 points – a personal best and championship record.

Ennis first made her breakthrough in 2005, winning the European Junior Championships title and setting a new record. More success followed including bronze at the Commonwealth Games in 2006; and at the European Indoor Championships where she set a PB and improved her heptathlon lifetime best three times in the outdoor event.


In May 2007, Ennis equalled the British high jump record of 1.95m, en-route to victory, amassing 6388 points and breaking Denise Lewis' British under-23 record for the heptathlon. The victory trail continued at the European Cup in Szczecin where she added another 11 points to her PB. In Osaka at the World Championships, Ennis finished outside of the medals in fourth, but gold medals followed in Berlin 2009 and Doha 2010.

In July 2010 she also added the European Championship Gold medal to her ever-growing collection. A stress fracture had forced her to miss the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008.

In 2009, the all-rounder recorded six PBs at 100m, 800m, 100mH, Long Jump, Shot and Javelin. The following year, she gained two gold medals, first at the IAAF World Indoor Pentathlon, in Doha, second at the European Championships in Barcelona. This lifetime best meant she was just eight points short of the record set by Olympic Champion Denise Lewis.

She lost her world title in 2011, but also recorded personal bests in 800m, 200m and shot put. And Ennis has bounce-back ability and will surely live up to our Olympic expectations.

Quirky fact: Website Ask Jeeves analysed its 60million monthly queries to see who was most searched about by women for their lives, work and achievement rather than looks or gossip – Jessica was in the top 20.

The Running Bug's prediction for Jessica Ennis in the London Olympics 2012:

Jessica Ennis