Jessica Ennis-Hill announces her retirement from athletics

Former Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill has announced her retirement from athletics.

The 30-year-old was one of the stars of London 2012, where she won the heptathlon by 306 points. Ennis-Hill won three of the seven events on her way to Olympic gold.

A two-time World champion, the Sheffield native won gold in Berlin in 2009 and Beijing in 2015. Her final event came at Rio 2016, where she won a silver medal trying to defend her Olympic title. She lost by 35 points to Belgium's Nafissatou Thiam, who was a surprise winner.

Ennis-Hill will be best remembered for her role in London 2012's 'Super Saturday', when she won one of three golds for Great Britain in the Olympic Stadium.

In a statement released on Thursday morning, the 30-year-old said she was; "so fortunate to have had such an amazing career within the sport I love."

"I know that retiring now is right. I've always said I want to leave my sport on a high and have no regrets and I can truly say that."

 

Amazing memories...from my first world title in Berlin 2009 to Rio 2016 I'm so fortunate to have had such an amazing career within the sport I love and this has been one of the toughest decisions I've had to make. But I know that retiring now is right. I've always said I want to leave my sport on a high and have no regrets and I can truly say that. I want to thank my family and incredible team who have spent so much of their time supporting me and enabling me to achieve my dreams. Also a huge thank you to all those people who have supported and followed my career over the years x

A photo posted by Jessica Ennis-Hill (@jessicaennishill) on Oct 13, 2016 at 1:17am PDT

Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!

Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.