Athletics-Ennis-Hill on course for Olympic qualification

May 30 (Reuters) - Jessica Ennis-Hill made a solid if unspectacular return to the heptathlon in Austria on Saturday and is on course to earn the qualifying standard she needs to be able to defend her Olympic crown in Rio de Janeiro next year. After the first day of a prestigious annual meeting in Gotzis, the Briton, competing in the seven-event discipline for the first time since winning the gold medal at the 2012 London Games and then becoming a mother, was lying in third place. Inevitably rusty and far from her sharpest after such a long absence and recent Achilles concerns, Ennis-Hill still performed well enough to rack up 3,928 points after four events, well on track for the 6,200 target required to qualify for the Olympics. The 29-year-old clocked 13.24 seconds for the 100 metres hurdles, recorded 13.95 metres in the shot put and a 1.86-metre high jump before running 22.83 seconds in the 200 metres, a time that was more than a second down on her best. It left her 103 points behind world silver medallist Brianne Theisen Eaton of Canada and 67 adrift of double European sprint champion Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands. (Writing by Ian Chadband, editing by Tony Jimenez)