Jessica Ennis-Hill retires from athletics

After winning silver in the Rio Olympics, Jessica Ennis-Hill has today confirmed on social media that she is retiring from athletics. Writing on her instagram account, the double world champion, said it was “one of the toughest decisions [she’s] had to make”

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

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  “I’ve always said I want to leave my sport on a high and have no regrets and I can truly say that,” she added. That’s without a doubt. After winning her first medal 10 years ago, a bronze at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, Ennis came back from injury in 2009 to win her first gold at the World Championships in Berlin. More golds followed and her career came to a head when she was awarded gold on ‘Super Saturday’ at London 2012.

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  After taking a short break to give birth to her first child Reggie in 2014, the 30-year-old returned to sport just 13 months later and quite incredibly won World gold and Olympic silver.

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  Captioned alongside a collage of her career highlights, Jessica said: “I’m so fortunate to have had such an amazing career within the sport I love,” before thanking her family, fans and trainers for their support.

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  “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”

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  There’s no doubt that Jessica is an outstanding athlete and will be sorely missed from Team GB. Her teammate, Katarina Johnson-Thompson has called today “a sad day for athletics”.

A sad day for athletics! A real inspiration to me and so many others. Well done on a incredible career @J_Ennis pic.twitter.com/0k4omB9dA7

— KJT (@JohnsonThompson) October 13, 2016

More tributes to the star’s career have flooded twitter including tweets from Clare Balding and Iwan Thomas MBE.

What a terrific flag bearer for British athletics & women's sport @J_Ennis has been. Good luck to her for whatever comes next

— Clare Balding (@clarebalding) October 13, 2016

One of the true greats of our sport @J_Ennis hanging up spikes..Truly wish her & family all the best for the future..One of life's winners X

— Iwan Thomas MBE (@Iwanrunner) October 13, 2016

It is thought Jessica is retiring from sport in order to spend more time with her family.}