Former Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill has announced her retirement from athletics.

The 30-year-old was one of the stars of London 2012, where she won the heptathlon by 306 points. Ennis-Hill won three of the seven events on her way to Olympic gold.

A two-time World champion, the Sheffield native won gold in Berlin in 2009 and Beijing in 2015. Her final event came at Rio 2016, where she won a silver medal trying to defend her Olympic title. She lost by 35 points to Belgium's Nafissatou Thiam, who was a surprise winner.

Ennis-Hill will be best remembered for her role in London 2012's 'Super Saturday', when she won one of three golds for Great Britain in the Olympic Stadium.

In a statement released on Thursday morning, the 30-year-old said she was; "so fortunate to have had such an amazing career within the sport I love."

"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."

 

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