Rio 2016: Jessica Ennis-Hill wins silver medal in heptathlon, while Greg Rutherford won long jump bronze

Jessica Ennis-Hill won the silver medal in the women’s heptathlon just two years after the birth of her son Reggie.

The 30-year-old fell agonisingly short in her bid to become the first British woman to retain an Olympic title in athletics, finishing 35 points behind brilliant young Belgian Nafissatou Thiam.

Ennis-Hill's scored of 6,775 points was her best since London 2012, but she could not live with Thiam, who produced five personal bests from her seven events.

The Sheffield athlete went into the final event, the 800m, needing to run 9.47 seconds quicker than Thiam to make up a deficit of 142 points.

She produced a hugely gutsy display of front-running to give herself the best possible chance and came home in 2:09.07, but Thiam's time of 2:16.54 was enough for the gold to go to the Belgian.

Fellow Briton Greg Rutherford also failed to retain his London 2012 gold medal, but he did claim a bronze medal in the long jump.