Athletics: Jessica Ennis aware of expectation levels

Jessica Ennis

Jessica Ennis is confident of her heptathlon chances going into London 2012, but admits that her Olympic campaign will be regarded as a failure unless she secures gold.

The Sheffield-born 26-year-old, who was crowned world champion in 2009, is the favourite to win a gold medal in the track and field event next month.

"Because of the expectation and pressure, I think anything but gold, everyone would view that as a failure and I'm aware of that," the golden girl of British athletics said.

"But it's just about focusing on what I know I can do and getting the most out of every event. If I give it absolutely everything and don't come away with the gold then I did everything I could have done, but just wasn't the best person on the day.

"I'm going to go there and give it everything to see what I can do."

Ennis begins her event on August 3rd but will face strong competition from world indoor champion Nataliya Dobrynska and, in particular, world champion Tatyana Chernova.

The latter won gold at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu and is expected to push Ennis right to the wire.

With the Olympics being hosted on home soil, Ennis is acutely aware that expectation levels will be higher than ever before, but insists that she will focus on preparing correctly instead of the intense media coverage.

"I obviously get asked a lot about the pressure and how I'm feeling and of course I feel it,” Ennis revealed. "There is a lot of expectation going into a home Games for anyone, but I'm just really focused on my training and how things have been going and realistically what I can achieve.

"I think if I just focus on that, then hopefully I can go out there and perform well."

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