Pick a month during this year’s athletics season and heptathlete Jessica Ennis would be achieving a new landmark. In May, she broke Denise Lewis's British Under-23 record; in July, she climbed to the top of the domestic rankings and to No 3 in the world; in August, she was fourth at the World Championships in Osaka and in between, she still had the time to complete her degree in Psychology at the University Of Sheffield, her home city.

What a year it has been for the 21-year-old who has her sights on improving even more at the Olympic Games in Beijing in nine months time, knowing the prospect of her peaking for London 2012 could put her in the position of being the favourite for gold. Just ask those who watch her perform.

Sweden’s Carolina Kluft, the Olympic champion who retained her world crown in Japan, says: "You can see that Jessica has a great competitive spirit. She doesn't ever have to put a limit on how good she wants to be."

While British team-mate Kelly Sotherton, the Olympic and World Championship bronze medallist, says: “Jess is not far off taking Kluft's mantle in the next few years. She's the future, so everyone had better watch out.”

Before the heat of the summer’s competition, the intensity for Ennis was in the classroom in the final stages of her degree, balancing her life between her academic work and the concentration needed in training to reach the top level.

“It was all about getting the balance right,” Ennis, who received our University Sporting Achievement Of The Year award, said.

Even before the athletics season was in full swing, Ennis was finding prolific form when she built impressively on winning bronze at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne last year. In May, her score of 6388 points broke the British Under-23 record held by Lewis, the 2000 Olympic champion, and was the start of an incredible period of success.

During that competition itself, her High Jump of 1.95 metres equalled the British senior record - clearing her own height by 30 centimetres - and Ennis moved to third in the world rankings in July when she scored 6399 at the European Cup of Combined Events in Szczecin, Poland. A few weeks later she triumphed in both the 100 metres hurdles and High Jump at the Norwich Union World Championship trials in Manchester before winning bronze at the European Under-23 Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, before Osaka.

In August, at the World Championships, Ennis was equally eye-catching. The first event is the 100 metres hurdles and she found herself leading the competition when she clocked the best time from all the heats, 12.97sec, having beaten both Kluft and Sotherton in her race.

It was the first of three individual personal bests in Osaka from a summer where Ennis improved at every discipline and took her total Heptathlon points score from 6287 to 6469 in Japan, missing out on bronze to Sotherton by just 41. But she embraced every moment of the occasion, knowing it is just the start. “I can’t imagine what it is like to win a medal but I want to be there in the future,” she said. “It has been an amazing season. It is hard to put it into words.”

Ennis beamed when she made her way onto the stage here at Lord's to receive her honour and is aiming to beat Kluft – eventually. "Can I catch Carolina? I would like to say she can be beaten one day - hopefully," she said. "This year has been really challenging by finishing my degree and competing but it has been worth it. I am now back into winter training and preparation is going well.”

It should be another thrilling year ahead.

Also nominated: UWIC women’s rugby team (Retained the BUSA Rugby Union Championships at Twickenham, their fourth victory over the past six seasons); Abby Westley (Crowned European 1500 metres under-23 champion in Debrecen, Hungary in July)

Presented by: Tanni Grey-Thompson, Britain's greatest Paralympian.

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