Ennis takes lead into 800m

Jessica Ennis will take a slender 18-point lead into the final event of the European Championships heptathlon in Barcelona on Saturday.

Ennis was 68 points clear of Olympic champion Nataliya Dobrynska going into the javelin, the penultimate event, and produced a superb personal best of 46.71 metres with her first attempt.

That improvement of 24cm on her previous best had coach Toni Minichiello jumping out of his seat in the stands, but Dobrynska responded with a PB of her own of 49.25m in the second round to set up a tense final in the 800m at 2045 local time.

The good news for world champion Ennis is that she has a personal best more than three seconds quicker than Dobrynska over two laps, and the 24-year-old from Sheffield will know exactly what she has to do to win the title.

At the same stage of the World Championships in Berlin last year, Ennis had a 171-point lead over Poland's Kamila Chudzik, but won her heat of the 800m in two minutes 12.22 seconds, a time quicker than Dobrynska's personal best.

The 18-point lead translates into a cushion of around 1.3 seconds for Ennis, meaning she will need to just keep Dobrynska within touching distance to seal the gold.

Alternatively, a new personal best of 2:09.59 would be enough to break the 10-year-old British record held by 2000 Olympic champion Denise Lewis.

Elsewhere, Britain's Carl Myerscough finished last in the shot final after following up two fouls with a disappointing throw of 18.19m.