• Athletics

Ennis: I can win major hurdles glory

Jessica Ennis is a hurdling specialist © PA Photos

Enlarge

Related Links

• News: Ennis pulls out of indoor season
  
• News: Ennis: 7000-point mark can fill Olympic void
  
• News: Ennis' coach faces uncertain future after UKA reshuffle
  
• News: Ennis eyes 7000-point mark at Worlds
  
• News: Ennis won't turn her back on heptathlon
  
• Profile: Jessica Ennis-Hill

Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis says she will only switch to the hurdles if she believes she can challenge for medals on the world stage.

Ennis set a new British record in the 100m hurdles as she kicked off her Olympic campaign at London 2012 in blistering fashion, a time that would have been fast enough to win individual hurdles gold at Beijing 2008.

Ennis has no intention of abandoning the heptathlon just yet as she turns her attentions to regaining the world title, but admits she would like to focus on the hurdles later in her career.

Reigning world and Olympic hurdles champion Sally Pearson has a personal best that is nearly three tenths of a second quicker than Ennis, but the Brit believes strong competition will help her run faster.

"It's a huge decision to just switch events, it's not something I can do lightly, but the truth is I really do want to give hurdles a go at some stage," Ennis told Sportsbeat.

"It's something that I hope can prolong my career and my time in London was very fast. That definitely gives me confidence because there's no way I would move from heptathlon to an event where I had no chance of making semi-finals and finals.

"There's no way I would settle for a drop in level. I would like to think that I can run that time again, or even faster hopefully, considering if I put all my training time into one event. The run in London was smooth, fast, it was pretty perfect and I could not believe the time I ran but I think that was down to it being competitive.

"Normally in the hurdles event in the heptathlon I'm a long way clear and it's just me against the clock but if you have someone there pushing you it can help drive your legs on to run faster times. So hopefully that will be the case in the individual event and that should keep me improving."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.