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."

A Psychology student from the University of Sheffield, she can now stop dreaming of being the Heptathlon world champion because in Berlin it happened in spectacular style. Ennis became the first British woman to win the World gold medal in this event, showing how brilliantly she is following in the footsteps of legendary British multi-eventers.

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

Even before the World Championships, Ennis had climbed to the top of the Heptathlon world rankings, the gradual and impressive progress since her first senior Championships, the 2005 World University Games in Izmir, Turkey, where she won bronze.

From the moment of the first gun in Berlin - she won the 100m hurdles in the opening heat of the Heptathlon - she was ahead and never passed during two blistering days where she showed she will be the woman to catch in London in 2012. A Commonwealth bronze medalist in March 2006, she sustained an ankle injury last year that ruled her out of the Olympic Games in Beijing. But Ennis has recovered with the best possible outcome.