Jessica Ennis launches her countdown to Beijing today admitting that the bittersweet memories of her most recent trip to the Far East are fuelling her Olympic dream. The psychology graduate from Sheffield was an agonising fourth in the heptathlon at the World Championships in Japan last August and has no intention of being bridesmaid again. “I was 41 points short of a medal,” she said. “If only I’d thrown the javelin a bit further or jumped a bit longer. It plays on your mind.”

Ennis, who will compete in the 60 metres hurdles and long jump in the Norwich Union International at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, did achieve a personal-best tally of 6,469 points in Osaka, but she knows that she needs to improve to be an Olympic medal-winner.

That is assuming Carolina Klüft, the Swede who last lost a senior heptathlon almost seven years ago, is there. There have been murmurings that Klüft may focus on the long jump at the Olympics, although the suggestion that her body is wilting looked fanciful as she recorded a huge 7,032 points in retaining her world title. “I think she’ll be there and will want to bow out with another heptathlon,” Ennis said. “She is guaranteed to win the gold because she is quite a bit off the other girls. My aim is to get closer. I want to score 6,600 or 6,700 in Beijing and I’d be disappointed if that did not win a medal.”

Ennis identifies the shot, javelin and long jump as the events needing most work and is forging a healthy rivalry with Kelly Sotherton, her Great Britain team-mate who won the bronze in Osaka. “It’s a bit annoying because I beat her in five out of seven events, but that’s the joy of the heptathlon,” Ennis said.

Ennis is one of a string of British athletes whose Olympic focus means that they will miss the World Indoor Championships in March, but today’s outing is a chance to gauge her progress. Having graduated last year, she is free from the pressure of studying and has been working hard in Sheffield rather than joining the Britain warm-weather training camp in South Africa.

There are other intriguing appearances in the match between teams from Britain, Germany, Sweden, the United States and the Commonwealth. Craig Pickering and Simeon Williamson, two of Britain’s best sprint prospects, go head to head in the 100 metres, while Sam Ellis and Michael East, the middle-distance runners, make comebacks from serious knee injuries.