Heptathlon win puts Ennis-Hill back on form for Rio

(Reuters) - Britain's Olympic and world champion Jessica Ennis-Hill won her final heptathlon before the Rio Games on Sunday with her best result since 2012. The 30-year-old's winning tally of 6,733 points at the IAAF Combined Events Challenge in Ratingen, Germany, was also the second highest score so far this year. The Briton had said on Saturday, after ending the day with a 188 point lead over Germany's Carolin Schafer, that she felt back on form and showed it on Sunday with a personal best of 6.63 meters in the long jump. She threw 44.37m in the javelin and ran the final 800m in two minutes 11.46 seconds. On Saturday she ran the 100m hurdles in 13.13 seconds, despite wind and rain, and cleared 1.84m in the high jump. A shot put of 14.29m was her best since 2012 and Ennis-Hill recorded a season's best of 23.36 seconds in the 200m. Her final points tally was 64 better than her score at last year's world championships, the last heptathlon Ennis-Hill had competed in, and only 32 less than Canada's Brianne Theisen-Eaton's year's best in Gotzis, Austria, last month. Schafer finished second with 6,476 points. Ennis-Hill, who will seek to defend her title in Rio in August, did not take part in the Gotzis meet due to an Achilles injury. She also withdrew from the World Indoor Championships in Portland in March. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ken Ferris)