Olympic heptathlon gold medal candidate Jessica Ennis will commence her 2012 international outdoor campaign when competing at the Powerade CityGames Manchester on Sunday 20 May.
Ennis in what is becoming part of a traditional start to her summer season will race in one of her favourite events the 100 metres hurdles at the unique street event held in Deansgate, situated in the heart of the city centre.
Ennis in what is becoming part of a traditional start to her summer season will race in one of her favourite events the 100 metres hurdles at the unique street event held in Deansgate, situated in the heart of the city centre.
The 26-year-old Sheffield star sees it as an ideal opportunity to prepare for her first major heptathlon competition in Gotzis the following weekend, where she will defend the title she won a year ago at the world's best non-championships meeting.
Ennis denied the chance because of a serious foot injury sustained at the Austrian venue in 2008 to compete at the Olympic Games in Beijing three months later, is determined after that setback to add the gold medal to the the World crown she claimed three years ago in Berlin.
"The street athletics is a fantastic event, it's so different from stadium meetings, which is so refreshing for me," said Ennis who will be joined by over a dozen Olympic and World medallists at the meet. "The crowd and atmosphere have always been so welcoming and supportive in Manchester."
Ennis who if she is to be successful at the London Games will probably have to smash the UK record, emphasised "This season is such a short season makes Manchester so important for me as part of my Olympic preparations."
Her full scedule to be confirmed she added: All I can announce at this stage is that I am preparing for the Gotzis Heptathlon Meeting the weekend after Manchester, after which it will be only 11 weeks to the Olympic Heptathlon so I'll be very selective about competitions."
Now undergoing a strict training campaign under the eagle eye of coach Toni Minichiello, she insisted although surrendering her World Outdoor heptathlon and Indoor pentathlon titles in the last nine months, she remains very upbeat about a home Olympics victory.
"Of course coming second is always disappointing, however we've lots of positives, both competitions have given me more focus on what to work on," said Ennis. "Any defeat is going to make you focus and work that little bit harder, but i don't dwell on it.
"I focus on myself and work at making my strengths and weaknesses better," said the reigning European heptathlon champion who missed Lewis's UK record by just eight points with that success in Barcelona two years ago. .
Ennis with some good individual indoor performances under her belt during the winter and winning the World Indoor silver medal, admitted: "Despite the the personal bests and National record in Istanbul, we know that good work has been done in all the events as the earlier season performances show."
Having worked hard throughout the winter to improve particularly in both the javelin where she is advised by former World bronze medallist Mick Hill and long jump, she revealed: "We took a short break after the (2011) outdoor season as usual and got straight back into working with Mick Hill on the javelin.
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