Ennis to play second best again in heptathlon at Olympics
Published:Mark Cavendish is just one example of a Team GB member that has failed to win gold as favourite at the Olympics thus far and Jessica Ennis may soon be adding her name to this list.
Ennis is 8/11 to win the heptathlon and is widely regarded as one of team’s best hopes of an athletics gold medal, along with Mo Farah.
However, Ennis has gone two years without a victory in a major championship and Tatyana Chernova can ensure this run extends in the biggest heptathlon of them all in London.
Chernova is 7/4 to win heptathlon gold in London and overhauled Ennis to claim victory at the World Championships in Daegu last year.
Meanwhile, she will want to build on her bronze medal four years ago in Beijing and this experience may be an asset as Ennis prepares for her Olympic debut under the added pressure of being the leading lady of the Team GB athletics camp.
Ennis also came up short in the pentathlon at the World Indoor Championships earlier this year when beaten by defending Olympic champion Nataliya Dobrynska, but there is little chance of the Ukrainian defending her crown.
Never has an athlete won successive Olympic heptathlons and Dobrynska is 6/1 to be the first to achieve this feat, although she has been quiet this year after the death of her husband.
It is Ennis that has the world lead when breaking her personal best in her only full heptathlon of the year in Austria, but this score was only 26 points more than the total achieved by Chernova when she took gold in Daegu.
The problem for Ennis is that she is arguably the more likely of the leading duo to make a mess of an event and compete some way below her best.
The two throwing events and especially the javelin is a major thorn for Ennis and anything remote from her personal best in this event could be costly.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
