Jessica Ennis climbed to the top of the world rankings in 2009

"The National Lottery has had a huge input into my career, funding both my training facilities and medical cover and has undoubtedly helped me to recover from my foot injury last year. Thank you to everyone that plays the National Lottery because your contributions help to fund not just athletics, but a number of sports and cultural activities across the country."

Since Dame Mary Peters won Olympic pentathlon gold in Munich in 1972, the British team has achieved remarkable success at multi-eventing with Daley Thompson's double Decathlon gold in Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984 and Denise Lewis' Heptathlon triumph in Sydney in 2000.

In spectacular style Ennis joined that elite list by becoming the first British woman to win the World Championship Heptathlon gold medal with a thrilling performance in Berlin last summer.

Injury ruled her out of the Olympics in Beijing but she has now become Britain's leading hope for a track and field gold in London. She started 2010 in an amazing style with a British 60m hurdles record of 7.95.

It was just the beginning of another fabulous period. In March, she won the Pentathlon at the World Indoor Championships in Doha and then became the European champion in Barcelona in July.

An ankle injury prevented her competing at the European Indoor Championships in March in Paris but she has recovered for the defence of her World title in Daegu this summer. Away from the track, her outstanding success saw her decorated in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours by being made an MBE.