JESSICA ENNIS-HILL has announced her retirement from athletics after admitting she wants to "leave my sport on a high," having won her second Olympic heptathlon medal at Rio 2016 this summer, according to Jack de Menezes of the London INDEPENDENT. Announcing the news on her Instagram page, the 30-year-old revealed that her success in Rio, combined with her Gold Medal performance at London 2012, "means that she can bow out at the top of the sport after spending seven years as one of the leading athletes in the world." In her post, Ennis-Hill said, "Amazing memories ... from my first world title in Berlin 2009 to Rio 2016 I'm so fortunate to have had such an amazing career within the sport I love and this has been one of the toughest decisions I've had to make. But I know that retiring now is right" (INDEPENDENT, 10/13). In London, Vicki Hodges reported Ennis-Hill's coach, TONI MINICHIELLO, believes she is "one of the country's sporting greats." Minichiello coached Ennis-Hill throughout her career and agreed she is "bowing out at the right time." Minichiello: "Many sports people hold on too long. Jess has managed to avoid walking out of the stadium after failing a qualifying round. She's walking out of the stadium by stepping off the podium. She's one of our sporting greats. It seems fitting this way" (TELEGRAPH, 10/13).
WHAT'S NEXT?: The BBC reported former British heptathlete KELLY SOTHERTON said that she thinks Ennis-Hill "will love not having to go to the track." She added, "Two years ago she had her first child and she is a very family-oriented person. She's quite private, she's not flash, she wants to have more children. So I think she will slot into her life outside of the sport." Ennis-Hill's first medal came at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne at the age of 20, when she took bronze behind Sotherton (BBC, 10/13). SKY SPORTS' Allan Valente reported Ennis-Hill's career has been hailed as "phenomenal" by British Athletics Performance Dir NEIL BLACK. He said, "Not only has she competed at the highest level, but she has been a warm and positive presence within the GB team and a great example to the younger team members. Her record as an athlete is phenomenal and that's without considering the challenges of returning from pregnancy to win World gold and Olympic silver." Heptathlete KATARINA JOHNSON-THOMPSON also took to her Twitter page (SKY SPORTS, 10/13).
'SOMETHING SPECIAL': In London, Jim White opined it has not taken Ennis-Hill's retirement, announced with "characteristic modesty via a brief statement on social media, for us to appreciate what an athlete Ennis was." We have "known that all along." From the moment she emerged as a 20-year-old to win the bronze medal in the heptathlon at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, "it was obvious she was something special." To see her in action -- "graceful, quick, relentlessly competitive -- was immediately to appreciate her excellence." In a sport tarnished by "endless assumptions of illicit drug-use, Ennis-Hill was a beacon of good practice." Clean, "decent and endlessly good-humoured, how she will be missed" (
TELEGRAPH, 10/13). In London, Rick Broadbent opined Ennis-Hill’s retirement "leaves a gaping hole at the heart of British athletics." It is not easy to find "mentally tough multi-taskers who can do both poster girl and girl-next-door shtick." There has "probably never been a more deceptive athlete than Ennis-Hill." She is "only 5ft 5in tall but she can jump her own height comfortably." She smiles a lot, "can appear almost fragile, and yet she is as bloody-minded and committed as they come." She could "definitely have gone on, but what was the point?" She has a family to run now and hopes to add to it (
LONDON TIMES, 10/13).
