• European Athletics Championships

Ennis wants to emulate Kluft's era of domination

Jessica Ennis was 10 points short of breaking Denise Lewis' British record © Getty Images

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Jessica Ennis wants an era of heptathlon successes named after her, much in the same way Carolina Kluft dominated the sport, following her European Championships success last week.

Ennis added the European title to her world crown thanks to a 45-point winning margin over Olympic champion Nataliya Dobrynska. The Brit is now recognised as the No. 1 heptathlete in the world but she is targeting a repeat of Kluft's successes, when the Swede won Olympic gold, three World Championships and two European gongs between 2002 and 2007.

"It's nice to have won the last few championships but she won championships for five or six years," said Ennis, who broke Kluft's European points record in Barcelona.

"The record is a really nice bonus. She is amazing so to take any record that she had is really great. You can't really compare [us] just yet. I'd love to keep performing the way I am and winning at major championships but in the back of my mind I am expecting to be challenged and things don't always go your way so I am fully prepared for that."

Ennis' tally of 6,823 points was just 10 short of breaking Denise Lewis' 10-year British record in the heptathlon, and the Sheffield athlete is convinced there are plenty of areas where she can still improve.

"I have weaknesses but I've made good improvements on them. I don't feel I am at the point where I am 100 per cent happy, I still feel there is more to come. I feel I had a great championships and I'm really pleased to keep improving year on year because I think that's important.

"But again I do feel there is more to come. The wind didn't help in the hurdles and a few of the races. I feel I can get a bit more from the high jump as well and a bit more on the first day. I've worked a lot on the second day and that's shown, but I think there's a little bit of sharpness to come on the first day."

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