Van Commenee hails golden girl Ennis

Ennis led from start to finish to win the World Championships title in impressive fashion, winning three of the first four events and eventually easing to a 238-point victory over Germany's Jennifer Oeser. Poland's Kamila Chudzik was a further 22 points adrift in third with Olympic champion Nataliya Dobrynska well beaten back in fourth.

"She is cool, calm and collected and that is her special quality," said Van Commenee, who coached Denise Lewis to the Olympic title in 2000 and Kelly Sotherton to bronze in Athens four years later. "She is not affected by the opposition or the occasion and there is room for improvement."

Ennis' performance was all the more remarkable given it was only her second heptathlon since a triple stress fracture to her right foot ruled her out of the Olympics in Beijing last year.

She returned to competition with a personal best of 6,587 in Italy in May and improved that to 6,731 here in Berlin to surpass the achievements of compatriots Lewis and Sotherton, Lewis winning world silver in 1997 and 1999 and Sotherton claiming bronze just ahead of Ennis in Osaka two years ago.

"I was so worried, I didn't know how I was going to come back," admitted Ennis, who was only 100 points short of Lewis' British record. "I didn't know what kind of shape I'd be in and this year has just gone from strength to strength and now I'm world champion."

Ennis led by 307 points after the opening day but that was trimmed to 269 points after the long jump, Ennis jumping 6.29m in the third and final round.

And the margin was reduced further in the javelin despite a solid throw of 43.54m in the first round. Chudzik threw 48.72m to close within 171 points of Ennis, with Oeser in third ahead of Dobrynska.

However, that still translated to a 12-second cushion for the 800m and Ennis was not about to take things easy anyway, charging through 400m in an amazingly quick 61.12 seconds before winning in two minutes 12.22secs.

"That was just pure nerves, pure adrenaline," Ennis conceded about her opening lap. "Then I just had to hang on and needed to do enough to win the medal. I knew what times I needed to run and I just went off too fast. I was really pleased, it was consistent solid performances (overall) and I also know that I have a lot more to give in most of the events as well."