Jessica Ennis-Hill will make her competitive return at the Manchester Great CityGames on May 9.
The 29-year-old has not competed since the Anniversary Games in 2013 – the event commemorating the 2012 Olympic Games in which she won gold in the heptathlon.
There will be huge interest to see how the Sheffield-born athlete will perform on her return with 25,000 spectators to line up on Deansgate to watch the seventh edition of the games which preclude the Great Manchester Run.
Ennis-Hill, who has been adopted as a national treasure, will be competing in the 100m hurdles – the event that she won in her third and latest appearance at the games in 2012.
She said: “I’m really looking forward to making my competitive return at the Great CityGames Manchester. The atmosphere is always amazing there.
“Street athletics is a lot of fun, you are really close to the fans. The energy around the Morrison’s Great Manchester Run brings the city together in a celebration of running.”
During Ennis-Hill’s absence, 22-year-old Liverpudlian Katarina Johnson-Thompson established herself at the top of the heptathlon world rankings and she will also be in action in Manchester, competing in the 200m hurdles and the long jump.
Johnson-Thompson said: “I’ve haven’t taken part in the Great CityGames events before so I’m really looking forward to making my debut in Manchester in May.
“I’ve seen the events on television before and love the idea of competing so close to the public. I can’t wait to experience it first-hand.”
The pair will go head-to-head at the end of May in Gotzis, Austria, before competing for the World Championship gold in Beijing in August and then onto the RioOlympics in 2016.
The two multi-eventers have been the first two major names to be announced for the Great CityGames this year, but previous events have been graced by luminaries such as Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and Greg Rutherford.
Image courtesy of Al King via FlickR, with thanks.
