Jessica Ennis loses pentathlon title

In one of of the most high profile multi-event competitions in the run up to London 2012 Olympics, the Sheffield athlete started brightly but was overtaken in the fourth round by the eventual winner Ukraine’s Natalya Dobrinska.

A poor long-jump in the fourth round of the pentathlon competition allowed two of Ennis’ rivals to overtake her eventually and she finished with 4965 and the silver medal after all five events.

Ennis, the title holder, was leading after three events as an anticipated head-to-head battle with Russia’s Tatyana Chernova failed to materialise in the opening session.

However, the Briton’s total of 3,064 points was only 10 ahead of Lithuanian Austra Skujyte, the silver medallist from the 2004 Olympics heptathlon, and the reigning Olympic heptathlon champion Natalya Dobrinska was third on 3,035.

Chernova, who beat Ennis to the world heptathlon title last year, only managed one legal throw in the shot put, a season’s best 13.90 metres with her first effort, and had slipped to fifth at the interval on 2,880.

Strong start

Ennis produced a personal best of 14.79 in the shot and a relieved smile to keep the overall lead from Skujyte whose best effort was 16.26.

Ennis got her title defence off to a strong start in the 60 metres hurdles with a time of 7.91 seconds, the fastest for the pentathlon at a world indoor championships.

Ennis then cleared 1.87 in the high jump on her third attempt having watched Chernova fail at the height. Skujyte was joint first in the discipline with 1.90 to move into second place above the Russian in the overall standings.

After three events, Ennis was ahead of world record schedule, but the long jump proved to be a turning point. Dobrinska nailed a season’s best of 6.57 with her third round jump, with a below par 6.19 leaving Ennis back in seventh. This performance pushed the Briton down to third overall behind Dobrinska and Skujyte.

Speaking before the final event Ennis said that she would need to beat Dobrinska by six seconds to and admitted that it was a big gap to make up.

She would also have to beat Skujyte, who overhauled Britain’s Kelly Sotherton in the Athens Olympics heptathlon 800m in the battle for the silver, and hold off Chernova who recovered to fourth after the long jump.

A personal best in the 800m won her the silver medal with a Commonwealth Record but was not enough to beat Dobrinska who won the gold with a indoor World Record.

Lane controversy

The day also saw strong a performance from Britain’s Tiffany Porter who qualified second fastest for the 60m hurdles semi final in eight seconds flat, behind Australia’s reigning outdoor World Champion hurdler Sally Pearson.

Other British qualifiers include Yamile Aldama in the women’s triple jump, Dwain Chambers in the 60m and reigning 5,000m outdoor World Champion Mo Farah, who went through to Sunday’s 3,000m after a close finish in his heat with five athletes in contention in the final straight for just four places.

Defending world indoor champion Helen Clitheroe had a tough second heat in the women’s 3000m after becoming boxed in, but did not panic and finished strongly in 9:02.27 to reach the final.

There were also some new names showing promise, particularly in the 400m with Shana Cox and Nadine Okyere progressing to this evening’s women’s’ semi final and Nigel Levine and Richard Buck going through in the men’s event.

But there was controversy in the 60m heats with sprinters in lanes 7 and 8 missing the starting pistol with the victims including hotly-tipped sprinter Larone Clarke.

The Jamaican ended up finishing last in his heat when he was expected to challenge for gold.