• London 2012 - Athletics

Golden girl Ennis crowned Olympic champion

Jessica Ennis is the new Olympic heptathlon champion © PA Photos

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Jessica Ennis lived up to her reputation as the golden girl of London 2012 as she fulfilled her dream of becoming Olympic heptathlon champion.

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Ennis, who suffered heartbreak four years ago when she was forced to miss the Beijing Games with injury and lost her world title to Tatyana Chernova last year, produced one of the greatest performances of her career to seal a spectacular victory.

Having set a British record with a blistering performance in the 100m hurdles on Friday, Ennis was well-placed at the end of the first day after a lifetime best in the 200m.

With the long jump and javelin, arguably Ennis' weakest events, still to come on Saturday morning, Ennis was expected to relinquish at least part of her advantage, but she extended her lead with a solid performance in the long jump and another personal best in the javelin.

With Ennis one of the strongest 800m runners in the field, the gold medal was all but round her neck, the seventh and final event was essentially a two-lap victory parade.

But far from allowing herself to take it easy and enjoy her golden moment; Ennis set her sights on breaking the magical 7000-point barrier that only three women in history have achieved.

While she was ultimately unable to reach that milestone, her 800m effort of 2:08.65 took her to 6955 points - a new British and Commonwealth record - as she finished more than 300 points clear of Germany's Lilli Schwarzkopf in silver, while world champion Tatyana Chernova took bronze.

Teenage sensation Katarina Johnson-Thompson marked an impressive senior debut to finish a creditable 15th with a new personal best of 6267, while Louise Hazel finished 27th with 5856 points.

Heptathlon results

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