World Athletics 2011: Jessica Ennis edged out in Daegu

ATHLETICS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011

• Venue: Daegu, South Korea
 
• Date: 27 August - 4 September
 
• Coverage: BBC Radio 5 live, 5 live sports extra and online (UK only), daily video highlights on BBC Sport website (UK only); live text commentaries; watch live on Channel 4

A 800m personal best could not redeem Ennis' disappointing javelin

Jessica Ennis took silver after failing to overhaul Tatyana Chern

ova's 133-point lead in the 800m in the defence of her world heptathlon title.

Ennis needed to finish at least nine seconds clear of the Russian in the final event to take gold.

Despite leading for most the race and setting a personal best, Ennis finished less than a second ahead of her rival.

Ennis had led the competition before throwing a disappointing 39.95m in the penultimate event - the javelin.

"I came here to win gold. It started off poorly and I got it together but unfortunately the javelin was a big disaster," she told Channel 4.

"If I had to do it anywhere, it's here because it's next year where I want gold.

"I knew it would be very, very difficult. I was being realistic, but I had to give it everything and leave everything on the track and that's what I did.

"The javelin let me down. I'll go away and work really hard at it and come back stronger next year."

Ennis, who won gold at European championships in 2010, finished on 6751 points, 129 adrift of Chernova.

The 25-year-old's points total was 20 more than the score that proved enough for victory in Berlin two years ago, but even her personal best of 6,823 would not have been enough to wrestle gold from Chernova.

Her hopes of becoming the first British women to defend a world title were slim before the final event with Chernova's personal best over two laps a full two seconds faster than her own previous fastest time.

The Sheffield athlete duly launched an ambitious attack after a swift first lap and opened a lead of about ten metres on Chernova before the pace took its toll in the home straight.

Ennis' campaign had faltered earlier in the day with an javelin effort that was 13m short of Chernova's best throw.