Jessica Ennis loses world title in Daegu

Ennis celebrates in front of gold medallist Tatyana Chernova (GETTY IMAGES)

The second of Britain's great hopes for World Championship gold had to settle for silver today as Jessica Ennis failed to retain her heptathlon title in Daegu.

Two days after Mo Farah was narrowly beaten in the 10,000 metres, Ennis saw her unbeaten run come to an end as Russia's Tatyana Chernova took gold by 129 points, despite finishing behind Ennis in five of the seven events.

Chernova set two personal bests and four season's bests in the two days of competition, but it was Ennis' poor performance in the javelin which proved the difference.

Ennis trailed Chernova by 133 points going into the final event, the 800 metres, this evening, which represented a massive time difference of around nine seconds.

And although the 25-year-old recorded a new personal best of two minutes 07.81 seconds in finishing second, Chernova was just a stride behind in third, raising her arms in delight as she crossed the line.

With 6,751 points, Ennis scored 20 more than when winning the title in Berlin two years ago, and even her personal best of 6,823 would not have been enough with Chernova finishing with 6,880.

Ennis held a 151-point lead coming into the second day of competition after recovering from a slightly sub-par performance in the 100m hurdles and high jump with a personal best in the shot and victory over 200m.

She then equalled her personal best in the long jump with 6.51m in the second round, seeing her lead cut to 118 points as Chernova jumped 10cm further.

However, Chernova then threw 52.95m in the first pool of the javelin, while Ennis could only manage 39.95m in the second pool an hour later after twice slipping on the runway.

Speaking after the javelin, her coach Toni Minichiello said: "I'm a little bit on the stunned side. She should have done better in the javelin and she will know it.

"It went really well at the training camp in Ulsan and I'm amazed you can come to a major championship and have a patch [of what appears to be relaid track] on the javelin runway.

"She slipped twice on the patch but I am clutching at straws somewhat. I don't think getting a silver medal is a bad thing. It says you have to hit your reset button."

Asked if she was disappointed with silver, Ennis said: "If I'm honest yes, I came here to get gold. Unfortunately the javelin was a big disaster for me but still it's a silver medal and if I have to do it (win silver not gold), do it here.

"Next year is where I want the gold.

"I think we will go away and analyse it (the javelin), but not over analyse it. I'm going to go away and work on it and come back very strong next year."