Can the dream continue for Jessica Ennis-Hill?

It has been a dream day of athletics for Lollipop and I at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing.

Not only did good conquer evil as Usain Bolt narrowly beat Justin Gatlin to take the 100m gold but our Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill also achieved gold in the Heptathlon.

Ennis-Hill had already written herself off as she told BBC Sport that she would have been happy with third place.

“This is definitely one of the greatest moments of my career, I still can’t believe it,” she said. “Me and coach Toni (Minichiello) spoke about coming here, and we only wanted to come if I was able to compete for a medal.

“We spoke about the bronze medal and that it would be amazing for a silver medal, but we never spoke about gold. I kind of thought it was a little beyond me this year.”

However thanks to young British rival Katerina Johnson-Thompson showing some inexperience and recording no-jumps in her three long jump attempts the defending champion remained ahead.

On Sunday Ennis-Hill  recorded a season’s best of 6.43m in the long jump, just nine centimetres off her personal best, and then threw 42.51m in the first round of the javelin to open up a gap of 86 points over Nadine Broersen of the Netherlands in the silver medal position and 94 over Theisen-Eaton in third.

This gave Ennis-Hill a lead of just under six seconds as the athletes lined up for the 800m, one of Ennis-Hill’s best events. She stormed ahead of Broersen in the last 100m then fell to the floor with her hands over her face to cover her elation.

Our comeback queen returned to the championships stage to do what no other multi eventer has done before – win a world title just 13 months after giving birth to son Reggie.

Despite Ennis-Hill’s disbelief she produced a peerless performance to take gold and showed what an inspiration she is to mummies everywhere.

But can she do it again in Rio 2016?

22-year-old Johnson-Thompson was clearly devastated today by her loss but there is no doubt in Lollipop’s mind that she is still a threat to Ennis-Hill and a future champ.

Ennis-Hill triumphed as her rivals under performed and made callous errors however everyone will have learnt from this event. They will know exactly where they went wrong and will comeback stronger.

Ennis- Hill admitted that this was her toughest year to date as she struggled to get back into shape.

Just last month, she finished fourth in Gotzis and was unsure whether she would be competing in Beijing.

She only started full training again in November following the birth of her son. Then at the London Anniversary Games her form improved as she recorded three season’s bests in the 100m hurdles, long jump and 200m, marking an incredible turnaround to become the best in the world today.

Although Ennis-Hill has made huge strides in her performance her competitors will only get stronger in the countdown to Rio.

Can Ennis-Hill keep ahead of the pack Lollipop or was London 2012 her last Olympic gold medal?

Lollipop and I marked her out of this competition and were wrong to do so.

We won’t be doing the same in Rio.

Gold for Jessica Ennis-Hill.

Ethiopia’s Tigist Tufa ends Kenyan dominance

Twenty six miles later and the 37,500 people that took place in today’s London Marathon are all done!

Everyone maybe talking about record holder Paula Radcliffe who ran her final race in two hours 36 minutes 55 seconds but Lollipop would prefer to talk about the winner. Ethiopia’s Tigist Tufa made beating Kenya’s two-time London winner Mary Keitany look easy as she sprinted clear to finish in  two hours twenty three minutes twenty two seconds. With three miles to go Tufa and compatriot Tirfi Tsegaye broke away from the rest, the champ then moved 18 seconds clear to win.

The 28-year-old was a surprise winner as only the ninth-fastest in the field but looking at her previous success maybe she should not have been.

Tuga has won major marathons in her career most recently the 2014 Shanghai Marathon where she set a new course record and a personal best time of  two hours twenty one minutes and fifty two seconds.

But today our champ set a new career high. Her major win ended four years of domination by Kenya’s women in the capital.

Despite Kenya’s victory in the men’s race with Eliud Kipchoge finishing ahead of last years winner and record holder Wilson Kipsang in a time of two hours four minutes 42 seconds the women could not complete the country’s domination.

Lollipop believes this could be the start of a new rivalry in women’s marathon racing as more and more runners step up their game to compete with Kenya’s greatest athletes.

The race had been billed as a four-way fight between a quartet of Kenyans: defending champion Edna Kiplagat, two-time former champion Keitany, half-marathon world record holder Florence Kiplagat and Priscah Jeptoo, the winner in 2013.

Champion Tufa had barely been mentioned in the build-up, but the slow pace played into her hands and she produced a 25th mile of 5mins 07secs to beat her rivals.

Last year former champ Kiplagat finished in two hours twenty minutes twenty one seconds – five minutes short of Radcliffe’s record breaking time. The race was much quicker but the sluggish start today made things more competitive. When speaking to BBC Sport even Tufa said: “The weather was very difficult for me and I found it a very slow race until the end and I was pushed.”

So the weather may have weakened Kenya’s defence but it did not stop a record breaking amount of entrants running the marathon this year.

Whether it was down to Paula’s last appearance or the This Girl Can campaign women were running in force today.

The oldest woman running in 2015 was Iva Barr, 87, born 23 October 1927 and the youngest was Paige Brown, 18 years two days, born 24 April 1997.

Lollipop would like to congratulate them all. They may not be the Kenyan or Ethiopian elites but they took part. Gold medals all round.