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By Neil Wilson in Barcelona
Taking it easy: The European Championships in Barcelona are just another 'stepping stone; towards London for Jessica EnnisJessica Ennis does not go to bed to dream of Olympic gold in 2012, or wake thinking about it. Just now and again, she says, the thought crosses her mind.
'There's a lot I want to achieve before 2012,' said the world heptathlon champion.
Winning the gold medal at the European Championships here this week is first on that list.
Ennis is the one British athlete who will be judged a disappointment if she fails to win in Barcelona, according to chief coach Charles van Commenee, and that is a pressure she is having to become accustomed to.
In truth, though, the pressure of the coach's words is nothing to what she faces two years hence at the Games in London that will define her athletic career. Everything before, as her personal coach Tony Minichiello puts it, is just 'another stepping stone, part of a learning process'.
Ennis is fated to be the athlete who will play the role of 'local favourite' in London's Olympic Stadium, just as hurdlers Liu Xiang and Fani Halkia did in Beijing and Athens and, most memorably, Cathy Freeman did in Sydney.
Gold is expected of those nationally anointed. Nothing else matters to their home crowd beyond victory, as Britain's Jonathan Edwards found when he won his Olympic gold minutes before Freeman and was denied even a lap of honour by the excitement.
The pressure is palpable. For now Ennis seems unconcerned. 'I had it on a bit of a smaller scale going into the worlds. I know it will be on a much larger scale but I think I'm quite mentally strong and I've got great people around me to help me with the pressure. Yes, I'm hoping I can deal with it quite well,' she said.
Golden girl: Jessica Ennis celebrates her magical win at the World Championships in Berlin last summerEnnis shares her agent with Freeman and there is talk of discussions with the Australian and with Carolina Kluft, who won heptathlon gold at a European Championships in Gothenburg in 2005, about handling pressure.
Britain's chief coach Van Commenee also plans to isolate her from the hype at home by moving her to Portugal for three weeks before the Games. For now, says Ennis, it is the media more than the athletes who are thinking of 2012.
'The athletes are focused on what they are doing at the moment so it's kind of on the Europeans this year and then on the worlds next year. I think most athletes are focused on the here and now,' she said.
Aiming high: Ennis wants to win European gold in Barcelona this weekAnd she is not wishing it was here and now. 'The beginning of 2012, in the January perhaps, at that stage I might be thinking I just want it to come round and begin.
At this stage everyone's looking forward to it and it's quite exciting, so I'm kind of not wanting to wish away the build-up.
'Next year will be a big year, the focus on the worlds but because it will be one more season and then the Olympics will be upon us - that will be when people think about it a lot more and realise how close it is.
'At the moment it still feels like it's a while away but next year perhaps will be the time when you think, "Oh, one more season and then it's the Olympics" and start to panic.'
Missing the 2008 Olympics with stress fractures cost her competitive experience but she learned another lesson from it, like not worrying over the loss of 10 days' training last month to a virus that attacked her inner ear and caused her to lose her balance.
Brit of all right: Jessica Ennis 'Before 2008, missing a few weeks of training would have sent me into pure panic mode. Now I can compare and know that it's never going to be that bad. I can handle it a lot better,' she said.
After two weeks at the Aviva Team GB preparation camp in Monte Gordo in Portugal, the site for the team's pre-2012 camp, she is fully prepared again - down to second for the moment to American Hyleas Fountain in the year's world rankings but still No 1 in Europe.
'If I'd stayed in the No 1 position it would be great but I'm expecting that to change on and off throughout the run-up to 2012. As long as I'm in good shape and injury-free then I'm more than happy.
'Hyleas' was a really good score. It inspires me and pushes me on a bit. I want that No 1 position.'
To regain it in Barcelona on Saturday evening would require her to encroach on the greatest score ever by a Briton - Denise Lewis's 10-year-old British record of 6,831 points.
Tatyana Chernova, the Russian who was second to her in Gotzis, Austria in May, may push her close.
Before Ennis kicks off on Friday morning with the first of her seven events, Britain will hope to be knee-deep in gold. Mo Farah could well win the 10,000m on Tuesday, Dwain Chambers the 100m on Wednesday and Phillips Idowu the triple jump on Thursday.
Indeed, these Europeans promise to be Britain's most successful since 1998 but Van Commenee is right. If Ennis is not among the winners, it will be a major disappointment, stepping stone or not.
source: dailymail
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