Athletics: Anyone for Ennis? Rising star has world at her feet

In between sitting her finals in psychology at the University of Sheffield, Jessica Ennis has been busy writing her name into the record books in recent weeks, removing those of Denise Lewis and Sally Gunnell in the process. She has also managed to graduate to third place in the heptathlon world rankings.

As the Great Britain women's track-and-field team challenge for European Cup promotion in Finland next weekend, though, the rising star of UK athletics will be conspicuous by her absence. While Nicola Sanders, Goldie Sayers and the rest of Britain's would-be golden girls chase victory in the First League Group A match in Vaasa, Ennis will be back home in Bedford, contesting the javelin and the 100m hurdles in the National Under-23 Championships.

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"I was asked to go to the European Cup, but I need to concentrate on my heptathlon preparations at the moment," she said. "I need to get out there and do as many competitions with the javelin as possible, and the Under-23s at Bedford is a good opportunity for me to do that, and to do the hurdles as well."

Having equalled the British high-jump record (soaring 31cm above her own height, at 1.95m) on the way to breaking Lewis's British Under-23 heptathlon record at Desenzano in northern Italy in May, Ennis would have been the natural first choice for that individual event in Vaasa, where Carolina Kluft, the Olympic heptathlon champion, is expected to compete in the long jump and both relays for Sweden. The diminutive Sheffielder, however, has her eyes on a bigger picture: the World Championships in Osaka in August and what promises to be an intriguing battle with Kluft and the new teenage sensation of the seven-event heptathlon, Tatyana Chernova of Russia.

With that in mind, Ennis is honing her preparations for her one remaining heptathlon before Osaka: the European Cup Combined Events Super League contest at Szczecin in Poland on 7 and 8 July. Hence the precedence of competitive practice in her weakest event, the javelin.

Already this summer the 21-year-old has eased her way past Kelly Sotherton as the leading British lady of the heptathlon, scoring 6,388 points to win in Desenzano while the Olympic bronze medallist finished seventh at Gotzis in Austria with 6,210 points. With two months to go before the World Championships, Ennis is third in the world rankings, behind Kluft, who won in Gotzis with 6,681 points, and Lyudmila Blonska of Ukraine, who scored 6,626 points as runner-up there.

"It's nice to be in that position," the Commonwealth bronze medallist reflected, "but it's still quite early in the season. I'm sure there's a lot more to come from other people. Look at what the Russian girl did in Arles." Quite. Competing at Arles in France two weeks ago, the 19-year-old Chernova announced herself as a force with which to be reckoned at senior level. The daughter of Lyudmila Chernova, a member of the Soviet Union's Olympic gold medal-winning 4 x 400m relay squad in 1980, the world junior champion rattled up a stunning 6,788 points.

It would have broken Kluft's world junior record had the following wind not been in excess of the legal multi-events limit of four metres per second in both the 100m hurdles and 200m. The fact that Chernova hurled the javelin 53.43m, and that she happens to be a consistent 50m-plus thrower, is sufficient for Ennis and her long-time coach, Toni Minichiello, to take her as a seriously dangerous threat not just for Osaka but also for the future, stretching out towards the London Olympics of 2012.

Ennis threw the javelin 33.91m in Desenzano and then 37.05m at the Loughborough International meeting a fortnight later - not as disastrous as the 30m throws that dragged Sotherton down the world order over the past 12 months but still an Achilles heel when set against the competition-clinching points advantage that Kluft (personal best: 50.96m) and Chernova can gain.

Still, unlike Sotherton, Ennis has shown a steady improvement in her throws every year, working on her javelin technique with the World Championship bronze medallist Mick Hill, to whom her British rival has also turned for help. "I'm not making massive improvements, but I'm stepping up slowly, year by year," Ennis said. "Hopefully, when it comes round to the Olympics, those slight improvements will amount to a greater throw."

Watch the European Cup on BBC1, Saturday, 1.20pm