Look closely: Multis star Ennis in great shape - Universal Sports (blog)

MADRID -- American sprinters Tyson Gay and Allyson Felix stole the headlines at the Manchester GreatCity Games on Sunday.

However, if you peer closely at what journalists often refer to as the agate, the small results at the bottom of the page, there was another outstanding performance: 12.88 clocked by Jessica Ennis in the 100m hurdles, the fastest time by a European hurdler at this early stage in the season.

The 25-year-old Briton didn't come home in front in that race. In fact, she finished third behind the United States' Danielle Carruthers, who following up her Samsung Diamond League victory in Doha earlier this month with a win in 12.74.

However, it's worth remembering that Ennis is a multi-events exponent, and a very, very good one as she's the reigning World and European heptathlon champion, but not a specialist hurdler despite her prowess over the barriers.

Not only did Ennis beat a number of top class women who don't usually have six other events to think about, she also ran faster than she has ever done at this time of the year. Oh yes, and in the rain as well.

In previous summers, Ennis hasn't been this sharp for another month or more, so it can't be anything but a hugely positive sign of things to come.

Ennis was trying not to get too carried with her performance in Manchester - unlike most of the spectators at the at the street race festival with the English city still in a heady state of euphoria after its soccer clubs United and City had separately clinched the domestic league title and cup the day before.

"If someone had said two weeks ago that I would be in Manchester running that sort of time, I would have been very happy with that. Coming into this, I just didn't really know where I was, to be honest, so to run 12.88 shows that I'm in good shape," reflected Ennis modestly.

"One massive positive to take from the day is that my ankle feels good (a slight injury caused her to pull out of the European Indoor Championships in March). I'm back into competition now and hopefully I can just keep on improving all year," she added.

In two weeks time, she embarks on her first heptathlon since last summer's European Outdoor Championships in Barcelona when she returns to the Austrian town of Götzis.

At the multi-event Mecca, Ennis will be hoping not only to repeat her victory other of 12 months ago but to finally eclipse the British record of 2000 Olympic champion Denise Lewis, which stands at 6831 points - she finished eight points adrift in Götzis last year - and perhaps edge closer to the near-mythical 7000-point barrier which has only been broken by three women.

Her rivals in a fortnight's time will include Ukraine's Beijing Olympic gold medallist and Barcelona silver medallist Natalya Dobrynska, Germany's Jennifer Oeser and Russia's former world junior champion, who finished third and fourth at the European Outdoor Championships, and well as France's newly-minted European indoor pentathlon champion Antoinette Nana Djimou.

However, Ennis showed in Manchester that they will all have to raise their game substantially if they are to have a chance of beating her in Götzis or at the World Championships later this summer.