Loughborough ( or ) is a town within the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. It had a population of 57,600 in 2004. It is the largest settlement in Leicestershire, is the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and is home to Loughborough University.

In 1841 Loughborough was the destination for the first package tour, organised by Thomas Cook for a temperance group from Leicester. The town has the world's largest bell foundry — John Taylor Bellfounders, which made the bells for the Carillon war memorial, a landmark within the Queens Park in the town, Great Paul for St. Paul's Cathedral, and York Minster. The first mention of Loughborough is in the 1086 Domesday Book.

To the north of the edges of Loughborough, Dishley Grange Farm was formerly the home of agricultural revolutionist Robert Bakewell. The farm was also once home to the annual Leicestershire County Show. Loughborough's local newspaper is the Loughborough Echo, although there is also the Loughborough Guide. However the town is also served by the Leicester Mercury.

Due to a large percentage of Australians living in and around the town as students and alumni of the University, it occasionally gets named Loogabarooga, both purposely for comic effect by Australians in the town and accidentally by visiting Australians and Americans unaware of its correct pronunciation.

History

Transport

Railway

The rail network is of growing importance in Loughborough, and with Eurostar international services from London St Pancras International, to which its twice hourly London service goes giving Loughborough railway station good links to the continent, this growth is sure to continue.

East Midlands Trains are the InterCity operator running 'fast' and 'semi-fast' services to and from London to northern England, and provide local services throughout the East Midlands.

Rail routes run north–south through Loughborough along the route known as the Midland Main Line, going south to Bedford, Luton and London; and north to Lincoln, Sheffield, Leeds and York. Junctions at Leicester and Derby stations link with CrossCountry trains route, serving the far north east of Scotland and the south west of England.

Network Rail are currently working to re-develop the station increasing the length of platforms and improving access. The local council are making improvements to the surrounding area.

There were at one time three railway routes to the town: the still operating Midland line; the Great Central Railway which had its own Central station, closed as a result of the Beeching cuts; and a branch line from Nuneaton, part of the London and North Western Railway. Today, the Great Central Railway line is the terminus of the south section of the Great Central Steam Railway heritage railway.

Brush Traction, a manufacturer of railway locomotives, is also located in the town, close to Loughborough's railway station.

Motorways

The M1's Junction 23 is 2 miles (5 km) west. The north of the town can be accessed from Junction 24, travelling through Kegworth and Hathern on the A6 road.

Buses

Local buses are operated by Arriva Fox County, Centrebus, Paul S Winson Coaches, Nottingham City Transport, Paul James Coaches, Premiere Travel, Trent Barton and Kinchbus.

River and Canal

The River Soar passes by to the east of the town. Navigation from Loughborough north towards the Trent was achieved in 1778 by the ''Loughborough Navigation'' which terminates at Loughborough Wharf between Derby Road and Bridge Street. Subsequently the Leicester navigation was constructed connecting to the Loughborough Navigation at Canal Bridge. The Leicester navigation connects to the River Soar south of the town. Both form part of the Grand Union Canal.

Economy

The centre of Loughborough's shopping area is the pedestrianised Market Place and Market Street, which maintain a number of original art deco buildings, such as the building that currently houses the town's cinema. A large outdoor market is held in the Market Place every Thursday and Saturday. There is a monthly farmers' market. The first mention of a market in Loughborough is in 1221.

'The Rushes' shopping centre has also been built on the site of the former bus station and is occupied by national chains. The Rushes is linked to the town centre area by Churchgate and Churchgate Mews; the latter has independent shops.

There is major new development ( The Eastern Gateway ) planned for the area around the railway station with a new road and housing planned.

The Japanese Olympic team have chosen the town as their base for the 2012 Olympic Games to be held in London. There is currently a flowerbed with red and white flowers in the design of the Japanese national flag. Due to the cold winter, almost all of the flowers have died. It is likely the flowers will be re-planted.

Sport

The Rugby Union club, Loughborough RFC, play at Derby Road playing fields. The club was formed in 1891.

Other sports teams include the non-league Loughborough Dynamo Football Club and the Loughborough Aces (Collegiate American Football). There is a netball league at Loughborough Leisure Centre. The town was also once home of a professional football club, Loughborough F.C., in the Football League during the late 1800s. Cricket is prominent, with The Old Contemptibles C.C, Loughborough Town C.C., Loughborough Carillon C.C., Loughborough Carillon Old Boys' C.C., Loughborough University Staff C.C. and Loughborough Greenfields C.C. representing various standards of Cricket in the area. The university is home to the ECB National Cricket Academy, used by the England team as primary training centre. The town also has its own swimming club, Loughborough Town Swimming Club, which is based in the town and train at local venues. Loughborough will also be hosting the UK Corporate Games 2011.

The tennis tournament AEGON Pro-Series Loughborough is held in Loughborough.

Arts and Heritage

Loughborough has four museums, the largest being the centrally located Charnwood Museum, which houses a range of exhibits reflecting the natural history, geology, industry and history of the area. Nearby in Queens Park is the Carillon and War Memorial, home to a small museum of military memorabilia from the first and second World Wars.

Also to be found in the town centre, near the fine medieval All Saints parish church, is the Old Rectory. Dating back to 1288 the remaining portion of the Great Hall has been restored and houses a small museum run by the Loughborough and District Archaeological Society.

Loughborough has for more than a century been the home of John Taylor & Co bell founders and the firm has a museum—the Bellfoundry Museum—located on two floors telling the story of bell making over the centuries.

A walk around the town reveals a mix of architectural styles and there are several interesting examples of Victorian and Art Deco buildings, while the oldest buildings are to be found clustered around the parish church and the Church Gate conservation area.

Although it has no dedicated art gallery, fine pieces of sculpture can be found in the town’s environs, including the ‘Sock Man’, a bronze statue celebrating Loughborough’s association with the hosiery industry. This can be found in the Market Place near the Town Hall, which itself contains a number of art works.

The Town Hall Theatre is the venue for a wide range of events, including concerts, exhibitions, musicals, comedy shows and a Christmas pantomime. The town also has a thriving amateur dramatic community , and many groups make use of the town hall for their shows.

Events are also organised by Charnwood Arts, a voluntary managed and professionally staffed body, which promotes a year round programme of professional performances across the borough. The organisation is responsible for The Picnic In the Park event, which was inaugurated in 1980 and is held in Queens Park in May. Streets Alive, jointly organised by Charnwood Arts and Charnwood Borough Council takes place at a similar time of year.

The Loughborough Canal Festival, which started in 1997, is an annual event in May centred around Chain Bridge. The event attracts around 10,000 visitors .

Great Central Railway is a heritage railway based at Loughborough Central Station, which is south of the town centre. It is operated largely by voluteers and trains run every weekend of the year and bank holidays, as well as daily during the summer.

Every November, the street fair takes over the centre of the town and closes the A6 and other roads. The fair runs from Wednesday afternoon until Saturday night. The fair has many rides, amusement arcades, food stands and games.

The town is home to the Reel Cinema, part of a chain of 10. There are six screens in the theatre, which is built to an art deco style. The cinema was built in 1936 and over the years it has been named the Palm Court and Ballroom, Empire, Classic and Curzon.

Education

Schools

Tertiary education

Loughborough University

In 2004, Loughborough University was ranked 9th among the British universities by the Times' Good University Guide. In 2006 Loughborough was ranked 6th. In 2007 The Guardian rated the university 8th, and 10th of 117 institutions by The Guardian League Tables 2009 (published online 1/6/08 for the 2009-10 academic year. The university is 5th in some rankings, behind Oxbridge and the London universities. The university has the largest sports scholarship in the UK. More than 250 international athletes study and train there. In 2008 Loughborough was named Sunday Times University of the Year. The university is also the town's largest employer.

Loughborough College

Loughborough College is the second biggest education establishment in Loughborough, after the University. Its offers Further Education and vocational courses. It was established in 1909, and has an over 12,000 full and part-time students population. It has an annual turnover in excess of £19m and employs over 900 staff .

Local Organisations

2229 Loughborough Squadron Air Training Corps

The Air Training Corps (ATC) is a military based youth organisation for 13-20 year olds. 2229 Loughborough Squadron is based at the T.A. Centre on Leicester Road in Loughborough. They parade on a Monday and Thursday from 19:00 hrs to 21:30 hrs and have around 30 cadets.. The current Officer in Charge is Flying Officer Adrian Garroway RAFVR(T)who took command of the Squadron on the 2nd August 2010. He replaced Flt Lt Kath Lane RAFVR(T) who had been in command since 2002. They can be seen regularly around the Loughborough area at all manner of community events. The cadets regularly fly, glide, target rifle shoot and take part in other adventurous activities.

Charnwood Youth Council

A youth Council for the borough of Charnwood (borough). They meet weekly at Charnwood Borough Council Offices in Loughborough. They hold 2 annual events which are the Charnwood Youth Conference which is attended by representatives from schools across Charnwood, and the Pride of Charnwood Awards which recognizes the contribution of young people to the communities within Charnwood.

Notable people

Loughborough natives include Albert Francis Cross, the journalist, author, poet and playwright who was born on Moor Lane on 9 May 1863, the two time Laurence Olivier Award nominated stage actress Nicola Hughes and ''Coronation Street'''s Roy Cropper actor David Neilson. Bobsleigher and Paratrooper Dean Ward, who won a bronze medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics was also born in the town.

Most biographies of Felix Buxton of Basement Jaxx suggest he was a Londoner. In fact he was a pupil at Loughborough Grammar School and son of the one-time vicar of nearby Woodhouse Eaves and Ibstock. The Dundee-born comedian, TV presenter and entertainer Danny Wallace attended Holywell County Primary School. Mark Collett, sidekick of Nick Griffin in the BNP, attended Loughborough Grammar School.

The high jumper Ben Challenger, son of Showaddywaddy drummer Romeo Challenger, is also from Loughborough. The popular Muslim and Bangladeshi presenter Rizwan Hussain was brought up there. More recently, Fred Bowers, a 73 year old Loughborough pensioner reached the Semi-Finals of ''Britains Got Talent'' 2009, with his breakdancing act. Art Collective Vanilla Galleries are also based in Loughborough, having put on a number of exhibitions and events over the past two years.

Notable sporting graduates of Loughborough University include Sir Clive Woodward, Sebastian Coe, Paula Radcliffe, David Moorcroft, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Monty Panesar, Steve Backley, Jack Kirwan and Lawrie Sanchez.

Twin towns

{| | valign="top" | Épinal, Vosges, France Gembloux, Namur, Belgium Schwäbisch Hall, Baden-Württemberg, Germany Zamość, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland |}

Loughborough also shares a community link with Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India.

References

External links

Charnwood Borough Council

Loughborough Town Hall

Search Loughborough

Charnwood Arts

2229 Loughborough Squadron

Loughborough Carillon

Charnwood Youth Council

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Name	Jessica Ennis MBE
Country	England
Club	City of Sheffield Athletic Club
Birth date	January 28, 1986
Birth place	Sheffield, England
Height
Weight
Turnedpro	2005
Pb	Heptathlon 6,823 points Pentathlon 4,937 points
Worlds	2007 — 4th 2009 — 1st2011 — 2nd
Europeans	2010 - 1st
Highestranking	Heptathlon: 1 (2009, 2010, 2011)
Updated	2 September 2010
Medaltemplates	}}

}} }}

Jessica Ennis, MBE (born 28 January 1986 in Sheffield) is a British track and field athlete specialising in multi-eventing disciplines and 100m hurdles. A member of the City of Sheffield Athletic Club, she is the current European and former World heptathlon champion and is the current world indoor pentathlon champion.

Background

One of two daughters born to Vinnie Ennis and Alison Powell, Jessica Ennis has a younger sister called Carmel. Her father, originally from Jamaica, is a self-employed painter and decorator; her mother, a social worker, was born in Derbyshire. Neither of her parents were particularly athletic, but her father did some sprinting at school whilst her mother favoured the high jump. They introduced her to athletics by taking her to a 'Start:Track' event at Sheffield's Don Valley Stadium during the 1996 school summer holidays. In later years she joked that her parents took her to the event because "I think my mum and dad wanted me out of the house!" She won her first athletics prize there - a pair of trainers. More importantly, it was there that she met the man who was to become her coach, Toni Minichiello. She took to the sport immediately and joined the City of Sheffield Athletic Club the following year, aged eleven. In November 2000, aged fourteen, she won the Sheffield Federation for School Sports ''Whitham Award'' for the best performance by a Sheffield athlete at the National Schools Championships, where she won the high jump competition.

Growing up in the Highfield area of Sheffield, Ennis attended King Ecgbert School in Dore, where she sat her GCSEs and stayed on in the sixth form to gain three A-Levels, before going on to study Psychology at the University of Sheffield, graduating in 2007 with a 2:2.

Ennis lives in Sheffield with her chocolate Labrador Myla. She got engaged to long-term boyfriend Andy Hill on Christmas Eve 2010. She is a fan of Sheffield United.

She writes a column for ''The Times'' newspaper, and is a patron for businessman Barrie Wells's sports foundation. She has been involved in advertising campaigns for Aviva, Powerade, BP and Adidas.

Athletics career

Junior competitions and early senior career

Ennis competed at the 2003 World Youth Championships in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada in July and the 2004 World Junior Championships in Grosseto, Italy, but it was her winning performance at the 2005 European Athletics Junior Championships in Kaunas, Lithuania that brought her to the fore. Her first senior championships was the 2005 Universiade, held in İzmir, Turkey, where she won the bronze medal with a new personal best of 5,910 points.

One of Ennis's first victories as a senior came in February 2004, when she was eighteen years old. She won the 60 metre hurdles at the Northern Senior Indoor Championships in a time of 8.60 seconds. Two weeks earlier she had won three Northern Junior Indoor Championship titles: the 60 metre sprint, the 60 metre hurdles and the high jump.

Below is a summary of Ennis's early successes:

2000 – 1st AAA U15 Championships pentathlon and 75 metre hurdles

2001 – 2nd AAA U17 Indoor Championships 60 metre hurdles

2003 – 1st AAA U20 Indoor Championships pentathlon, 1st AAA U20 Championships 100 metre hurdles

2004 – 8th World Junior Championships heptathlon

2005 – 1st European Junior Championships heptathlon, 3rd World University Games heptathlon, 1st AAA Indoor Championships pentathlon, 3rd AAA Championships 100 metre hurdles

2006

Ennis won a bronze medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia with a personal best score of 6,269 points, improving her previous best total by more than 350 points. Her leap of 1.91m high jump would have been enough to take the individual event gold medal. Before the Games she didn't think she would do so well, saying, "I don't think I will win a medal, to be honest, but I am just hoping to score over 6,000 points."

Later in 2006 Ennis improved her personal best with a score of 6,287 points at the 2006 European Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden. This was only sufficient for her to finish eighth, three points behind fellow British heptathlete Kelly Sotherton, after being third at the end of the first day. Ennis produced personal bests in the shot put and the 200 metres.

2007

Ennis finished sixth in the pentathlon at the 2007 European Indoor Championships, in Birmingham improving her personal best score by more than 300 points to 4,716.

In July Ennis competed in the 100 metre hurdles at the European Under-23 Championships in Debrecen, Hungary winning a bronze medal in time of 13.09 seconds, behind winner Nevin Yanit of Turkey and silver medallist Christina Vukicevic of Norway.

At the British National Championships, and World Trials, Ennis won the 100 metre hurdles beating specialists, such as defending champion Sarah Claxton, as well as rival Kelly Sotherton and also the high jump.

In August Ennis finished fourth at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, behind the winner Carolina Klüft, Lyudmyla Blonska and fellow Briton Kelly Sotherton despite recording the fastest times in the three track events including a personal best of 12.97 seconds in the 100 metre hurdles. At the end of the first day's events, BBC Television athletics commentator Paul Dickenson remarked that Ennis's performance was "the sign of a champion for the future". At the conclusion of the competition, Sotherton told BBC Television trackside interviewer Phil Jones: "She's the future, so everyone better watch out."

Ennis also went on to finish second overall in the World Combined Events Challenge this season, behind the Osaka silver-medallist, Lyudmyla Blonska.

In September, Ennis won the inaugural European Athletics Rising Star Award.

2008

In May 2008 Ennis withdrew from the heptathlon competition at the Hypo-Meeting in Götzis, Austria after the first day's events citing pain in her right foot. A scan later revealed that Ennis had three stress fractures in her right foot and would not be able to compete in the forthcoming Olympic Games in Beijing. The injury was diagnosed as stress fractures of the navicular and a metatarsal.

She wrote in her column in ''The Times'': "I was second after the first day, but the vague niggle I'd had beforehand was getting worse. It got really bad in the high jump, the second event of the day, and I think the damage started then. I had some treatment, felt fine and then set a personal best in the shot. In the 200 metres I think the adrenalin masked the pain, but in the home straight I felt I was going backwards. I struggled to push off and when I finished I couldn't walk."

Two years later Ennis told BBC Television presenter Hazel Irvine that she feared for her career. She said, "I was told by the UK Athletics doctor that this was a career-threatening injury. At that point my heart absolutely sunk and I was worrying that it would be the end of my career at the age of 22."

2009

After a twelve-month lay-off due to injury Ennis returned to competition at the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge in Desenzano del Garda in May, winning the event with a personal best score of 6,587 points, including an 800 metres personal best whilst also breaking Liliana Năstase's 16-year-old meet record in the process. Notably Ennis's foot injury the previous year meant that she had to change her take-off leg in the long jump from right to left, a switch that she described as feeling "alien at the start" comparing it to changing her writing hand.

Ennis' next competition was at the McCain Loughborough International meeting later in May where she competed as a guest in the long jump, in which she came second with 6.07 metres, and the 100 metre hurdles, which she won in 12.93 seconds. She then won the high jump and 100 metre hurdles at the national championships in Birmingham in July, with 1.91 metres and 12.87 seconds respectively.

In August Ennis won the gold medal at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin with a personal best points total of 6,731, 238 points ahead of silver medallist Jennifer Oeser of Germany and Poland's Kamila Chudzik. Ennis led the competition from the first event and posted a personal best of 14.14 metres in the shot put, whilst her first day points total of 4,124 points was the third-best first-day heptathlon score ever behind world record holder Jackie Joyner-Kersee and European record holder Carolina Klüft. Ennis's overnight lead of 307 points was reduced but never threatened. She set off at a rapid pace in the 800 metres and although overtaken by Nataliya Dobrynska on the final bend she regained the lead to win in 2 minutes 12.22 seconds. Ennis's room-mate and fellow heptathlete Louise Hazel revealed that Ennis had been reading Fern Britton's autobiography to take her mind off being Britain's top medal hope. Ennis's parents weren't in Berlin to see her triumph as they had bought non-refundable tickets to Beijing a year earlier and, as Ennis said, "it was difficult for them to come out here financially." Ennis’s lap of honour, which in the heptathlon is traditionally shared with all the other competitors, could not be completed as the athletes competing in the men's 100 metres final were preparing for their race, in which Usain Bolt broke the world record with a time of 9.58 seconds. After her victory UK Athletics head coach Charles Van Commenee said; "She is cool, calm and collected and that is her special quality. She is not affected by the opposition or the occasion and there is room for improvement."

Ennis made one final track appearance in 2009, at the Aviva Grand Prix in Gateshead at the end of August, coming fifth in the 100 metre hurdles in 13.28 seconds.

Sheffield City Council held a reception for Ennis in the city’s Peace Gardens, at which she was presented with a Mulberry designer handbag and a canteen of Sheffield cutlery. Council leader Paul Scriven said, "This is from the 530,000 people of Sheffield – this is our prize to you, our golden girl, our special champion."

In November 2009 it was reported that Ennis had not yet claimed her $36,000 prize for winning in Berlin. She said, "I actually forgot about it, to be honest - you have to fill out a form while you're out there, but I forgot. Yeah, I've got to chase that up."

In December 2009, Ennis won the "Sportswoman of the Year" award from the (British) ''Sports Journalists' Association'', as well as being voted "Sportswoman of the Year" at the ''Ultimate Woman of the Year Awards'' organised by Cosmopolitan magazine. Ennis also came third in the 2009 BBC Sports Personality of the Year, behind second-placed Formula One world champion Jensen Button and winner Ryan Giggs of Manchester United F.C..

2010

At the start of 2010 Ennis caused a surprise when winning the 60 metres hurdles ahead of American world indoor champion Lolo Jones at a five-team international meeting in Glasgow winning in a British record time of 7.95 seconds, two hundredths of a second ahead of Jones. Afterwards Jones expressed shock at being beaten by a multi-eventer, saying; "I’m looking forward to getting smooth again and not letting heptathletes, who practise every event, beat me when I’m only working on one thing. That’s kind of crazy." At the same meeting Ennis set a new indoor personal best in the High Jump of 1.94 metres. At the World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar, Ennis became the World Indoor Champion for the pentathlon with a new British Record, Commonwealth Record and Championship Record, with a score of 4,937 points, finishing ahead of all three Beijing heptathlon medal winners, Nataliya Dobrynska, Hyleas Fountain and Tatyana Chernova. Dobrynska was second with 4,851 points, Chernova third with 4,762 points and Fountain fourth with 4,753 points. Ennis's victory meant that she became the first British woman to win world titles both indoors and outdoors. Her preparation for the event was hampered by another foot injury, much less serious than the one she suffered in 2008. Following her victory she said; "Winning the worlds and then competing here against everybody who was in Berlin, apart from Kelly Sotherton, was really special. It has really boosted my confidence knowing I came here having had another foot injury and still managed to beat people who won medals in Beijing. The injury was always at the back of my mind and I was always a little bit worried about it."

In May Ennis won the 150 metre race in 16.99 seconds on a specially constructed straight track along Deansgate in Manchester city centre beating World and Olympic 400 metre champion Christine Ohurougu into third place. Later in May Ennis competed in three events at the Loughborough International meeting. She ran 12.85 seconds in the 100 metre hurdles and cleared 1.93 metres in the high jump but failed in her attempt to set a new British record of 1.96 metres. She was below her best in the javelin, throwing 43.83 metres.

At the end of May Ennis returned to the 2010 Hypo-Meeting in Götzis where she injured her ankle in 2008 winning the heptathlon with 6,689 points. She said her victory got rid of "all the demons from last time", referring to the foot injury suffered at the same event two years earlier that forced her to miss the Beijing Olympics.

The Adidas Grand Prix Diamond League meeting in New York in June saw Ennis in a one-off contest over three events against Hyleas Fountain. She won two of the three events, setting a personal best of 6.51 metres in the long jump, but lost by 15 points overall. She ran the 100 metres hurdles in 12.85 seconds, her second-fastest time ever, and recorded a below-par 13.61 metres in the shot put.

Ennis's training was interrupted in June due to a virus that affected her balance, preventing her from doing any work at all for two weeks. It forced her to miss the combined UK Championships/European Trials in Birmingham. She said; "I was dizzy all the time. I had to stay in bed for two weeks because I couldn't move. All I did was watch TV all day and try to get better." She returned to action at the Aviva Grand Prix in Gateshead in mid July, competing in the 200 metres and javelin. She ran a disappointing 23.55 seconds in the 200 metres, but registered 46.15 metres in the javelin, close to her personal best.

Ennis won the heptathlon gold medal at the 2010 European Championships with a personal best and European Championship Record score of 6,823 points, just eight points short of Denise Lewis's British and Commonwealth Records recording a personal best in the javelin of 46.71m. Ennis had led from the start of the competition but going into the final event, the 800 metres, she led Nataliya Dobrynska by only 18 points. Dobrynska had to beat Ennis by 2.2 seconds to take the title. Ennis led from the gun but with 250 metres to go Dobrynska went past her. Ennis responded immediately and sprinted to victory in 2 minutes 10.18 seconds to win the gold medal. Dobrynska finished second, 45 points behind Ennis, with Jennifer Oeser third. This time Ennis's parents were present to see her triumph.

After her victory Ennis recognised the challenge she had faced to overcome 2008 Olympic gold medallist Dobrynska. Ennis said: "It was really tough, completely different to last year and I'm happy to have handled the pressure and come out on top. At any point it could have completely changed. There was a lot of pressure because the girls were performing so well and I've been pushed all the way. I had to raise my game at every level." Dobrynska later declared that Ennis "has no weaknesses" but Ennis disagreed: "Everyone has a weakness. I'm expecting to be challenged [in the future] and things don't always go your way so I'm fully prepared for that." Dobrynska sounded her own warning: "Yes, Jessica is a great athlete but I know my reserve. What if I had managed to do the shot put in Barcelona as I can do, at least 50cm further? These are the eighty points which in the end I lacked to win."

Ennis decided not to compete in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India.

Ennis was voted European Athlete of the Month three times in 2010, winning the award in January, March and May. She was nominated for a Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year after she came back from injury to become world champion in 2009, the award eventually being won by Belgian tennis player Kim Clijsters. Ennis was nominated as on the shortlist of fiver for the IAAF Female Athlete of the Year., an award won by Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic. Also in November Ennis was voted the "Ultimate Sports Star" at the ''Ultimate Woman of the Year Awards'' organised by Cosmopolitan magazine in London, the second consecutive year she had won this award. A few days later Ennis was voted the "Outstanding Female Athlete" at the ''Commonwealth Sports Awards'' in Birmingham, despite not competing in the Delhi Commonwealth Games. The awards nominations continued to flow: Ennis was shortlisted for the BBC ''Sports Personality of the Year'' title for the second year running, and also for the ''Sunday Times'' "Sportswoman of the Year". She was unanimously voted (female) "British Athlete of the Year" by the ''British Athletics Writers' Association'' and was named the ''Sports Journalists' Association's'' "Sportswoman of the Year", both titles for the second consecutive year. Ennis came third for the second year in succession in the vote for the BBC ''Sports Personality of the Year'', polling just over 9% of the votes. The runaway winner was jump jockey Tony McCoy, with darts player Phil Taylor pipping Jessica for second place.

In 2010 Ennis was chosen to receive a D.Litt Honorary degree from the University of Sheffield for her excellent contribution to sport. She was the 2010 recipient of the prestigious Dame Marea Hartman Award awarded annually to the English female athlete who is adjudged to have been the outstanding athlete of the year. Others to have received this award include Christine Ohuruogu and Becky Lyne.

In August 2010 Ennis was put forward as a role model for young students - at a California high school. The incoming class of teenagers at the Silicon Valley city's Presentation High School were asked by Pete Campbell, a columnist for the San Jose on-line publication ''sanjoseinside.com'': "How many of you know who Jessica Ennis is? Jessica Ennis is an international track star. Earlier this summer, she won the gold medal in the Heptathlon at the European Championships. Last year, she also took gold at the World Championships. Jessica Ennis is arguably the world’s greatest female athlete. This young woman can fly…and throw…and jump…etc. She’s Wonder Woman."

2011

Ennis's first competition of 2011 was the Northern Athletics Senior Indoor Championships at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield in mid January. She competed in the shot put, in which she finished second with an indoor personal best of 14.11 metres, the 60 metres hurdles, which she won in a time of 8.15 seconds, and the 60 metres sprint. She won her heat in 7.44 seconds but did not participate in the final as a precaution after she felt a 'twinge' in her knee. Ennis's shot put personal best lasted only a week as she bettered it by 50 centimetres at an indoor meeting in Loughborough. The same day she recorded 6.16 metres in the long jump and 8.03 seconds in the 60 metres hurdles. On 29 January Ennis captained the British team at the Aviva international meeting in Glasgow. She competed in the 60 metres hurdles and won in a time of 7.97 seconds, beating renowned American sprint hurdler Lolo Jones for the second time. During the race Jones hit a hurdle and was never in contention to win. Ennis also competed in the long jump, where she came third, jumping a distance of 6.38 metres, one centimetre behind her indoor personal best. She improved her distance with each jump in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth rounds.

The Aviva Indoor UK Trials and Championships were held at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield over the weekend of 12/13 February 2011. Ennis intended to compete in four events - two each day. On the first day she won the high jump with a height of 1.88 metres and finished seventh in the shot put, throwing a below-par 13.86 metres. After two high jump failures at 1.91 metres, Ennis declined her third attempt as she felt "tightness" in her ankle and withdrew from the following day's long jump and 60 metres hurdles. The injury was serious enough for her to pull out of the following week's Aviva Grand Prix meeting in Birmingham and also the European Indoor Championships held in Paris in early March. She said; "I cannot take this risk. The World Championships has to be my priority." The injury was diagnosed as inflammation of the plantaris muscle. In Paris the pentathlon was won by Frenchwoman Antoinette Nana Djimou with a total more than 200 points fewer than Ennis's score at the World Indoor Championships a year earlier.

Ennis's first outdoor appearance of 2011 was in the Great City Games of Manchester on 15 May. On a track laid on the city's Deansgate thoroughfare she competed in the 100 metres hurdles, in which she came third in a time of 12.88 seconds, and the straight 150 metres sprint, in which she came second in 17.40 seconds. The following week she competed in two events at the Loughborough International Meeting. In windy conditions she won the high jump competition with 1.86 metres and finished sixth in the javelin, throwing 44.49 metres.

On the final weekend in May Ennis won the heptathlon at the 2011 Hypo-Meeting in Götzis, Austria, for the second consecutive year, recording 6,790 points, 101 more than in 2010 and just 33 points below her best ever. She beat Russia's Tatyana Chernova by 251 points. Her first day total of 4097 points gave her a chance of beating Denise Lewis's British record, but her performances in the long jump and javelin were below her best. However, she recorded personal best times in the 200 metres (23.11 seconds) and the 800 metres (2 minutes 8.46 seconds). Afterwards Ennis said: "I had about six weeks to prepare and that's about the bare minimum you'd need. I didn't want to come and produce a poor score and send out the wrong message with the World Championships this year. It was a bit of a gamble but as I started training I was in quite good shape and running well so I knew I could get myself in reasonably good shape and the gamble paid off."

Ennis next competed in two events at the Diamond League meeting at Randall's Island, New York, but she struggled in the face of a strong headwind and rain. She jumped 6.03 metres in the long jump and ran 13.27 seconds in the 100 metres hurdles. The following weekend Ennis took part in the Northern Athletics Outdoor Championships in Manchester, winning the long jump with 6.24 metres and finishing second in the javelin with a throw of 44.81 metres.

In mid July Ennis announced that she was to compete in five individual events at the Aviva UK Trials and Championships at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham: the 100 metres hurdles, the high jump, the long jump, the shot put and the javelin. She equalled her outdoor personal best in the shot put (14.25 metres), jumped a season's best in the long jump (6.44 metres), won the national high jump title for the second time (1,89 metres) and finished second behind new British record holder Tiffany Porter in the 100 metres hurdles (12.96 seconds). In the final event she threw 42.93 metres in the javelin competition. Ennis's last competition before the World Championships in Daegu was a low-key midweek event at Loughborough, where she recorded a personal best 12.79 seconds in the 100 metres hurdles to place her second on the British all-time list. At the 2011 World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea, Ennis was in the unusual position of not being in the lead after the first event, the 100 metres hurdles, her time of 12.94 seconds leaving her two points behind Hyleas Fountain. Fountain increased her lead to 41 points after the high jump, Ennis clearing only 1.86 metres. A personal best throw of 14.67 metres in the shot put gave Ennis the lead in the competition, a lead she increased after the 200 metres, which she ran in a time of 23.27 seconds. Her first-day total of 4,078 points was two points fewer than at the same stage of the 2010 European Championships and 46 fewer than in the 2009 World Championships. She led Tatyana Chernova by 151 points. On Day Two, Chernova reduced Ennis's lead by jumping 6.61 metres in the long jump, but Ennis responded by matching her personal best of 6.51 metres to limit the damage, now holding a lead of 118 points. Ennis's hopes of retaining her title received a severe setback with a poor effort of just 39.95 metres in the javelin, after Chernova had earlier thrown 52.95 metres to take an overall lead of 133 points. Ennis needed to beat Chernova by around nine seconds in the final event, the 800 metres, and despite recording a personal best time of 2 minutes 7.81 seconds it was not enough to overcome the deficit, as Chernova finished under one second behind, taking the title by 129 points. Chernova's score of 6880 points was 49 points higher than Denise Lewis's British record and 57 points higher than Ennis's best total. Afterwards, Ennis's coach Toni Minichiello pointed out that his athlete 'beat Chernova in five events, but just got heavily beaten in the javelin. That's the difference.' Ennis remarked: 'I don't want to analyse it too much. I think it was just one of those days where it just didn't come together. The event is always going to improve year upon year. It was a brilliant score by Chernova, she performed really well. I think I performed well, I've had some solid performances, some PBs, so I can take positives away from that and work on the javelin.'

In January 2011 Ennis was one of six women nominated for the 2011 Laureus World Sports Awards. She was selected as ''European Athlete of the Month'' for January 2011 and in June 2011 she was voted ''Sportswoman of the Year'' by Glamour magazine. Later the same month Ennis was inducted into the Sheffield Legends 'Walk of Fame', alongside other well-known people born in or connected with Sheffield who are honoured by plaques set in the pavement outside the Town Hall. The following month Ennis became part-owner of a two-year-old throroughbred racehorse that shares her name. The grey filly, bought by John Warren for Highclere Thoroughbred Racing for 82,000 guineas, is trained by Michael Bell. However, a few days later the horse was injured in a training accident when it bolted whilst undergoing stalls schooling, ran into a road and was hit by a car.

A lifesize representation of Ennis in wax was unveiled at Madame Tussaud's in London in late July. The model shows Ennis in celebratory pose holding a Union Flag.

Ennis was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to athletics.

Competition record

2007 World Championships

!Event	Result	!Position	!Points	Overall	!Notes
					(1,129) Beat Carolina Klüft (2nd, PB) and Kelly Sotherton (3rd, PB) in her heat
					(2,222) Carolina Klüft won with a jump of 1.95 m (PB)
					(2,878) Dropped from 2nd to 4th in overall points standings
					(3,942) Beat					(5,525)
					(6,469) Beat [[Kelly Sotherton">Carolina Klüft
					(4,895)
align="center"					(5,525)
					(6,469) Beat [[Kelly Sotherton (2nd) in her heat

2009 World Championships

!Event	Result	!Position	!Points	Overall	!Notes
					(1,135) Led by 76 points after opening event
					(2,267) Extended lead to 181 points
					(3,070) Despite a personal best, her lead was reduced to 148 points
					(4,124) 3rd highest points scorer ever after first day of a heptathlon. Led by 307 points.
					(5,064) Lead was reduced to 269 points after the fifth event.
align="center"					(5,799) Lead was reduced to 171 points after penultimate event
					(6,731) Increased lead by 67 points to 238 by winning the final heat.
					New World Champion. Beat Jennifer Oeser by 238 points.

2010 World Indoor Championships

!Event	Result	!Position	!Points	Overall	!Notes
					(1,120)
					(2,226)
					(3,021) Personal Best
					(4,009) Personal Best
					(4,937) Personal Best
					New World Indoor Champion, new Championship Record

2010 European Championships

!Event	Result	!Position	!Points	Overall	!Notes
					(1,132) Led by 63 points after opening event
					(2,225) Extended lead to 134 points
					(3,022) Lead was reduced to 11 points
					(4,080) Increased her lead to 110 points
					(5,065) Lead was reduced to 68 points
align="center"					(5,861) Despite a Personal Best her lead was reduced to 18 points
					(6,823) Points total of 6,823 was a new Personal Best and European Championship Record.
					New European Champion, New Championship Record Beat Nataliya Dobrynska by 45 points.

2011 World Championships

!Event	Result	!Position	!Points	Overall	!Notes
					(1,133) Trailed Hyleas Fountain by 2 points
					(2,187) Trailed Hyleas Fountain by 41 points
					(3,026) New PB, took lead (over Austra Skujyte) by 12 points
					(4,078) Increased lead (now over Tatyana Chernova) to 151 points
					(5,088) Matched PB, lead reduced to 118 points
					(5,754) 133 points behind Tatyana Chernova
					(6,751) New PB, 129 points behind Tatyana Chernova
					Silver medal, with her 3rd best career points total

Personal bests

By clearing 1.95 metres in the high jump, Ennis achieved a foot (30 cm) above her own height of 1.65 which only ten women have ever managed, it also meant that she became the joint British women's high jump record holder.

Her personal best of 12.79 seconds in the 100 metre hurdles puts her in second place on the British all-time list, with only Tiffany Ofili (12.60s) having achieved a better time in the event.

Ennis is currently second on the British all-time list for the Heptathlon with 6,823 points, behind Olympic gold-medallist Denise Lewis (6,831). If Ennis managed to equal all of her personal bests in one heptathlon competition, she would achieve a total of 7,037 points. Lewis's equivalent personal best total would be 6,970 points.

Outdoor Personal Bests

!Event	Record	!Points	!Venue	!Date	!Notes
		1,156
		1,171			British record, jointly held with Diana Davies and Susan Moncrieff.
		839
		1,068
		1,010
align="center"		796
		997
		7,037 (potential)

Indoor Personal Bests

!Event	Record	!Venue	!Date	!Notes
				Joint 2nd highest ever by a British High jumper indoors.
				World Indoor Championship Record, British Record, Commonwealth Record

References and notes

External links

Jessica Ennis (official website) ''JessicaEnnis.net''

City of Sheffield Athletic Club ''SheffieldAthletics.co.uk''

Profile: Jessica Ennis ''All-Athletics.com''

Profile: Jessica Ennis ''thepowerof10.info''

Category:1986 births Category:Living people Category:British heptathletes Category:English athletes Category:English people of Jamaican descent Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Category:People from Sheffield Category:Alumni of the University of Sheffield Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England

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