Life has taught Jessica Ennis never to take anything for granted, but a story that would have been unthinkable 15 months ago is edging closer and closer towards a glorious conclusion.
The young woman who feared her career might be over when she suffered multiple stress fractures in her right foot was on course for an astonishing comeback at the World Championships here after three events of the heptathlon.
Commanding performances in the 100 metres hurdles and the high jump were followed by a brilliant lifetime best in the shot put, just when it looked as if the event would prove her undoing.
It left her with a 138-point lead over second-placed Nataliya Dobrynska, the Olympic champion, with the 200m to come at the end of the opening day of competition.
She returns to the Olympic Stadium today for the long jump, the javelin, the 800m and then, barring a disaster, an emotional medals ceremony.
That would be a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for the 23 year-old. This time last year she was hunched in front of a television at home in Sheffield, her broken right foot encased in a protective boot, as Dobrynska dominated proceedings in Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium.
Yesterday Ennis wasted no time in reminding the Ukrainian that she is now the world's No 1-ranked heptathlete – 12.93sec to be precise. That was the time it took her to cross the line in the hurdles and, though she was slightly disappointed not have got closer to her personal best of 12.81, it was enough for a big early lead.
Significantly, Dobrynska was almost a second slower in 13.85, well down on her 13.44 time in Beijing.
"I was quite nervous about the hurdles because I had it in the back of my mind that something was going to go wrong and I was going to fall over or something," said Ennis. "So, to be honest, I was really pleased to get down and run under 13 seconds."
The fatalism was understandable given her wretched experience last year when she received the diagnosis on her injured foot and was ordered to rest if she wanted to save her athletics career.
But her brilliant comeback at a low-key heptathlon in Italy in May, when she produced a world-leading points total of 6,587, proved she was far from finished. Yesterday she showed she is getting even better.
Her hurdles time was an improvement on Italy, and so was her clearance of 1.92m in the high jump - just three centimetres shy of her British record.
But it was in the shot put that Ennis showed her true class. Under extreme pressure, with only 13.07m to show from her first two attempts, she knew she had to pull out something special in the final round to avoid a repeat of Osaka two years ago, when a poor shot put ruined her medal chances.
This time she delivered. With Dobrynksa threatening to slash her overall lead after achieving a 15.82m put, Ennis hurled the shot to 14.14m, the first time she had exceeded 14 metres.
There was more encouragement for Britain in the women's 400 metres as Christine Ohuruogu and Nicola Sanders, the gold and silver medallists in Osaka two years ago, qualified comfortably for today's semi-finals.
Ohuruogu found herself pitted against the world No 1, Sanya Richards, in her heat and though the American crossed the line first in 51.06, Ohuruogu showed no sign of her recent hamstring injury as she coasted home in second place in 51.30.
On paper, Richards is almost two seconds quicker than Ohuruogu this year but she knows how dangerous it is to under-estimate her British opponent when there is a championship medal at stake.
Having finished third behind her at the Beijing Olympics, Richards had no hesitation in naming Ohuruogu as the biggest threat to her World Championships ambitions.
"Christine has a great track record of being ready at these meets no matter what's going off for the rest of the season. For me, she's still the No 1 competition," Richards said.
Sanders has drifted off the radar following her injury-hit season last year, though the Windsor and Eton athlete was happy with her condition after finishing second in her heat in 51.64. "I'm feeling really good and I'm looking forward to the semi-finals," she said. "Obviously, Sanya has run the fastest but I think it's really wide open, like Osaka."
James Brewer, a former European junior silver medallist, underlined his promise with a personal best of 3min 37.17sec to qualify for the semi-finals of the 1500m. He was third in his heat.
Andy Baddeley, whose place in the Great Britain team was confirmed only a week ago after a season hit by injury, also justified his inclusion by going through in fourth place in his heat in 3-45.23.
Source: Telegraph
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