RIO’S HOT BRITISH TRIO

I was so close to giving it up

Jessica Ennis-Hill, Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford on the challenges they’ve overcome to try and repeat London 2012’s glorious Super Saturday

She was the poster girl for London 2012 whose gold medal in the heptathlon kick-started that incredible night. But just two years later Jessica Ennis, now Ennis-Hill, was seriously considering giving up on defending her title in Rio. Having married childhood sweetheart Andy Hill nine months after Super Saturday, she gave birth to son Reggie in July 2014, and within three months she was

back in training. But today Jessica, 30, says the struggle to be a hands- on mother and an Olympic athlete almost got the better of her.

‘There were lots of hard moments, particularly when Reggie wasn’t sleeping through the night,’ she says. ‘I’d think, “Why am I doing this to myself? Why don’t I just finish it here?” I’ve never thought about giving up before, but it was so hard to train after nights of broken sleep. I also had lots of injuries; my body wasn’t the same. I wondered if I’d ever be as good as I was. But I took a lot of strength from my family, especially my mum, who helped me to believe I could do it.’

Vindication came when she won gold at the World Championships in Beijing last August, 13 months after giving birth. And it was there that she found a new motivation for winning. ‘In Beijing I didn’t want to come home knowing I’d sacrificed that time with Reggie and come away without a medal. Now I want to win more than ever.’

The heptathlon is staged over two consecutive days and although she had a good first day on the Friday in 2012, winning the 100m hurdles and the 200m and posting decent scores in the shot put and high jump, Jessica was worried. ‘After the first day I was physically and mentally wiped out but I couldn’t get to sleep because I was thinking about the next day. Before I knew it I had to start again, and I was a nervous wreck.’ On the Saturday she had the long jump and the javelin in the morning before her 800m in the evening. ‘Going into the stadium, I remember the roar of the crowd being so loud,’ she recalls. ‘I knew the long jump and javelin were going to be tough, but I jumped well and threw a personal best. By then I knew I’d have to do something stupid to mess it up. When I won the 800m it was the most incredible feeling. I was on the floor with my hands over my face thinking, “I’ve done it! I can’t believe I’ve done it!” Then I saw Greg win his gold, and I remember giving Mo the thumbs up as I did my lap of honour. The next thing I knew there were three of us with golds. It was more than I could have ever imagined.

‘I always knew I wanted kids

but being a mum is harder than winning an Olympic medal. Athletics isn’t my number one focus any more. I’ve got a few injuries and I’m older, but being a mum makes you appre- ciate what you’ve got. I wouldn’t have it any other way.’ Jessica and her mother Alison Powell are ambassadors for Procter & Gamble’s Thank You, Mum campaign. Visit supersavvyme.co.uk