All eyes on the distance for Jessica Ennis-Hill

Ennis-Hill has withdrawn from next weekend’s international heptathlon in Gotzis, not quite being ready for a full heptathlon and having already achieved the Olympic qualifying mark.

At Loughborough she competes in the javelin.

Formerly her “Achilles heel”, Ennis-Hill is now consistently throwing between 43 and 48 metres in the javelin.

She achieved a personal best of 47.49 when winning Olympic gold and has since improved to 48.33 at Loughborough.

She is never going to be a top class javelin thrower but she is a solid performer in what is the weakest of her seven events and could even aspire to the 50 metre mark.

All eyes will be on her performance, not just to monitor her distance but hoping she comes through her first competition of the year injury free.

Ennis-Hill will not be the only City of Sheffield and Dearne athlete taking part in the Loughborough match.

Last week’s Yorkshire winners Karla Drew and Daniel Gardiner do the hurdles and long jump respectively for the England team which also includes Joe Dunderdale (javelin) and Alan Toward (discus).

There is also a British junior team taking part in the Loughborough match with European junior champion Adam Hague (City of Sheffield and Dearne) in the pole vault. British junior record holder Hague is targeting a place in this year’s World Junior Championships.

The second round matches of the Youth Development League lower age group (under 15 and under 17) are on Saturday.

City of Sheffield and Dearne travel to Preston for Northern Premier 1. They lie third of the six clubs with Chesterfield bringing up the rear.

In Premier 2 Rotherham are at Leeds where they will be looking to lift themselves off the foot of the table, whilst Hallamshire, second in North East 1 last time are at Doncaster where the hosts, Doncaster AC, are third in the table.