Jessica Ennis-Hill tells ITV News of her relief at London 2012 Gold after being denied by doper at World Championships

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Jessica Ennis-Hill has spoken of her relief at winning Olympic Gold in London after she was beaten to the top step of the podium at the World Athletics Championships a year earlier by a drugs cheat.

In an exclusive interview with ITV News, the 31-year-old said she would have been "very bitter and very disappointed" if the 2011 World Championships in Daegu had been the pinnacle of her career.

Russian Tatyana Chernova beat the star of London 2012 to gold in 2011 but the result was annulled after she was later found guilty of doping.

Ennis-Hill will receive her record-equalling third world heptathlon gold medal in a ceremony at the World Championships in London next month.

She also revealed that the disappointment of missing out on gold a year before her home Olympic Games only served to spurn her on.

"I think if that would've been the pinnacle of my career and that was the only gold medal that I was going to go on and achieve then I would perhaps be looking back in a very different light," said Ennis-Hill.

"I think I would've been very bitter and very disappointed. It's frustrating that it's taken this amount of time and obviously that it happened, but I was able to go and use that disappointment at the time as a positive and to go on and win the following year in London."

Jessica Ennis was one of the stars of London 2012, winning Gold in front of her home crowd. Credit: PA

However Ennis-Hill, who is now eight months pregnant, is relishing the chance to celebrate in front of her home crowd in the London Stadium once again.

"It's just very surreal to be going back into that stadium, to not be competing this time, to be eight months pregnant and standing on the podium and receiving that gold medal.

"I'm just happy that it's been rectified and that I'll have that amazing moment in the stadium one last time."

Ennis-Hill said she sees every doping incident as "different", but added that persistent offenders should not be given a second chance.

  • Ennis-Hill on the battle against doping in athletics

"It is hard to see athletes cheat and be banned and then come back into the sport and continue as if nothing's happened.

"I think you want to feel as an athlete that you are protected and that you will go on to win medals and that if people are cheating that they are punished in the correct way.

"Every situation is different. But if you have been found to cheat and you've cheated continuously, come back and cheated, there should be no leeway."

Ennis-Hill retired from athletics after Rio 2016. Credit: PA

After clinching a silver medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Ennis-Hill, who had already given birth to her first child, retired from athletics.

Does she have any regrets on retiring? "No, absolutely none," she said.

"I think for me it was just the perfect time. It wasn't something that I decided overnight, it was something that I'd thought about for a long time.

"I had a fantastic career in the sport and made the Olympics and World Championships and had a lot of fun, but for me to end at the Olympics at that point in my career was the best point for me."