By Duncan Mackay at the Ataköy Athletics Arena in Istanbul

Jessica Ennis_with_Natallia_Dobrynska_Istanbul_March_9_2012March 9 - Britain's former world heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis (pictured left) saw off the challenge of the Russian who beat her to the world title last year, Tatyana Chernova, but was "gutted" at having to settle for silver in the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Istanbul behind Natalya Dobrynska (right) of the Ukraine, who became the first woman to beat 5,000 points indoors as she set a world record of 5,013.


Ennis saw her chances of retaining the world indoor pentathlon title disappear in the fourth of her five events, the long jump, where she could only manage 6.19 metres, seventh best of the eight competitors and well short of her personal best.

By contrast Dobrynska, the Olympic champion, grew stronger as the competition went on as she erased the 20-year-old mark of 4,991 points set by Irina Belova of Russia 20 years ago.

Ennis took more than four seconds off her personal best in the final event with an 800 metres time of 2min 08.09 and momentarily thought she had done enough to retain her title when her name flashed up on the scoreboard.

But Dobrynska's score had not yet been added to the calculations – and after entering the final event with an effective cushion of more than six seconds, the 29-year-old Ukrainian, who tracked her British rival for most of the race, had done more than enough with a time of 2:11.15 – a time 0.19sec better than her outdoor best.

Dobrynska had had a solid first morning with a 8.38sec 60m hurdles, 1.84m high jump and 16.51m shot and after three events she sat third overall behind Ennis and Austra Skujyte of Lithuania.

But while Ennis faltered in the long jump, the Ukrainian (pictured) rose to the challenge, setting an indoor personal best of 6.57m  - her outdoor best is 6.63m - to occupy the gold medal position and opening up a 87-point gap on Skujyte and a 93-point gap on Ennis.

Natallia Dobrynska_Istanbul_March_9_2012
Looking ahead to London 2012, Ennis commented: "I need to make sure I learn from these experiences, get it right and turn silver into gold this summer."

Her Russian rival Chernova also has lessons to learn, having finished down in equal fourth on 4,725.

Ryan Whiting (pictured) secured victory in the men's shot put – the only other final of the day – with a lifetime best of 22.00 metres, securing a fifth successive victory in this event for the United States.

Ryan Whiting_Istanbul_March_9_2012

World outdoor champion David Storl had looked a likely winner after a personal best 21.88m in the first round.

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