After seeing Chernova dominate the long jump and javelin contests, Ennis ended the Russian's hopes by convincingly beating her over 800 metres to triumph by an impressive 117 points with a score of 6,689.

But it was a nerve-wracking day for the world champion.

Ennis led the way overnight, a massive 354 points clear of the third-placed Russian, but knew Chernova would mount a powerful second-day attack.

Chernova lived up to her reputation and produced a leap of 6.52 metres in the long jump and a javelin throw of 51.35m, which closed the gap between the pair to 77 points before the final event, while Ennis failed to perform as well as she would have liked.

The Sheffield star leapt only 6.13m and, although her javelin distance of 43.10m was close to her season's best, the results of those two events ruled out any hopes of her breaking Denise Lewis's 10-year-old UK record of 6,831.

However, Ennis held the trump card as the fastest performer in the 800m - despite the pouring rain and poor weather conditions.

The 24-year-old Yorkshirewoman was content to track her rival on their two-lap race of the Mosle Stadium to maintain her unbeaten record since the career-threatening injury at the Austrian track two years ago, which forced her to miss the Beijing Olympics.

"I was really nervous before the 800m so decided to stick behind her and take her at the end," said Ennis, who unleashed a terrific sprint in the final 200m to win in a time of 2min 11.19sec with Chernova fading to fifth.

"I know she wanted to win but I knew I would have more strength at the end."

In the men's decathlon America's Bryan Clay won his second title in Gotzis with a score of 8,483 points.


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