text: Jessica Ennis-Hill has revealed she faces her 'biggest challenge ever' as she attempts to juggle being a mother with winning gold at next year's Rio Olympics. Britain's golden girl of athletics is ready to step back on the track nine months after the birth of son Reggie and next month she will take on Katarina-Johnson Thompson, 22, who has risen to prominence in Ennis-Hill's absence, winning pentathlon gold at the European Indoor Championships last month and taking her British record. After the inevitable sleepless nights and the weight sessions in her garage to keep up her fitness Ennis-Hill, at 29, knows she faces a tough return. Jessica Ennis-Hill admits juggling motherhood with her Olympic aspirations poses a big challenge . Ennis-Hill will compete against Katarina Johnson-Thompson in Austria at the end of  May . Ennis-Hill wants to be celebrating another medal win at the Rio Games in Brazil in 2016 . A comparison of achievements between Ennis-Hill and Johnson-Thompson . She will race the hurdles at the Great City Games in Manchester in mid-May before a tantalising heptathlon clash against Thompson awaits in Gotzis, Austria on May 30. 'This year is just about coming back,' insisted Ennis-Hill yesterday at her English Institute of Sport training base in Sheffield. 'I want to be successful next year. At the Olympics I want to medal. 'It is quite hard to judge because I have never come back from this. I don't feel like I am a million miles away but I am not 100 per cent sure what it is going to look like when it all comes together. 'This is the hardest challenge ever. I am not just saying that. It was really tough in the lead up to London (2012) but this is just a whole different ball game.' Ennis-Hill has not competed at all since the London Anniversary Games of July 2013, when achilles injury limited her long jump and hurdles performances before curtailing her season. Her last heptathlon was that memorable evening in the Olympic Stadium in 2012. Reggie would regularly wake up Ennis-Hill and her husband Andy three times a night in the beginning but has settled down recently. 'I love being a mum, it is amazing, and now he has a real personality,' she said. Ennis-Hill will return to hurdling at the Great City games in Manchester in May . Ennis-Hill pictured with her husband Andy at the 2013 Sports Personality of the Year awards . Ennis-Hill has admitted she has struggled to balance the demands of being a mother with returning to fitness . 'But I'd be lying if I said there hadn't been days when I thought, 'I'm not sure I want to do this, because this is really, really hard.' I thought, 'I've already become Olympic champion. Do I want all the stress again?' But I have to give it a go. I don't want to look back and think, 'Oh, maybe I could have done it.' She suggested Johnson-Thompson's continued success — the Liverpudlian won gold in Gotzis last year — is an incentive and they could go head to head over seven events in the World Championships in August or in Rio. 'I do think it helps having someone out there doing incredibly well as you want to get back to your best, if not a bit better,' she added. 'It's added motivation. It is always sad when your records go but she did amazingly. I'm happy for her, she's doing well, but equally I want to be back and competitive. Rio is going to be the time she is at her peak, so it's interesting. 'All heptahletes have a mutual respect. She's a nice girl and I hope she says the same about me. There isn't that hate at all.' Where she does verge towards such sentiment is on discussion of Tatyana Chernova. The Russian beat Ennis-Hill to gold at the 2011 World Championships in Korea but was in January revealed to have failed a drugs test in 2009. Ennis-Hill admitted the success of Johnson-Thompson has provided an incentive to return to form . Tatyana Chernova (left) failed a drugs test two years before beating Ennis-Hill in South Korea in 2011 . Ennis-Hil has written to the  IAAF to ask why Chernova has been allowed to keep her world title . She was given a backdated ban and had earlier results annulled — but kept her world title. Ennis-Hill has written to the IAAF to ask why and bid to get the gold. 'I'm not happy about how the ban has been handled,' she said. 'I can't really understand it. Frustration isn't a strong enough word. If you are cheating, you're out. 'I thought I could win gold and came away with a silver. I could have been double world champion. I definitely want that medal.' Jessica Ennis trains in the adidas Climachill apparel range designed with advanced fabric for maximum cooling, and the adidas Ultra Boost trainers. Both available at www.adidas.co.uk .
target: Jessica Ennis-Hill is juggling motherhood with aiming for a gold medal .
  She begins her comeback in May and targets glory at Rio Olympics .
  Ennis-Hill admires Katarina Johnson-Thompson but wants to beat her .