Golden glory for Ennis

Jessica Ennis claimed Britain's first ever heptathlon gold medal in the World Championships with a brilliant performance in Berlin.

Ennis led from start to finish in the Olympic Stadium, winning three of the four events on the opening day - the 100metres hurdles, high jump and 200m - and also setting a personal best in the shot to justify her ranking as world number one.

And the 23-year-old from Sheffield comfortably held onto top spot after Sunday's long jump, javelin and 800m.

She won her 800m heat to clinch gold, beating Germany's Jennifer Oeser by 238 points, with Poland's Kamila Chudzik a further 22 points adrift in third.

It was a remarkable performance in only the second heptathlon since a triple stress fracture to her right foot ruled Ennis out of the Olympics in Beijing last year.

She returned to competition with a personal best of 6,587 points in Italy in May and improved that to 6,731 in Berlin to surpass the World Championship achievements of compatriots Denise Lewis and Kelly Sotherton, Lewis winning silver in 1997 and 1999 and Sotherton claiming bronze just ahead of Ennis in Osaka two years ago.

Ennis led by 307 points after the opening day but that was trimmed to 269 points after the long jump, when she jumped 6.29m in the third and final round.

And the margin was reduced further in the javelin despite a solid throw of 43.54m in the first round.

Chudzik threw 48.72m to close within 171 points of Ennis, with Oeser in third ahead of Olympic champion Nataliya Dobrynska.

However, that still translated to a 12-second cushion for the 800m and Ennis was not about to take things easy anyway, charging through 400m in an amazingly quick one minute and 1.12 seconds before winning in two minutes 12.22 seconds.