Ennis celebrates after winning the 150m at the Great City Games

Kelly Sotherton believes Jessica Ennis will break the British heptathlon record in Gotzis, Austria this weekend.

Denise Lewis set the British standard of 6,831 points over a decade ago but Sotherton believes world champion Ennis is on course to smash that mark.

"If the weather is good she can definitely do it," 2004 Olympic bronze winner Sotherton told BBC Radio 5 live.

"I think she will exceed Denise's record and might even touch 6,900 or even 7,000 points by the summer."

Ennis, who took gold at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin with a personal best of 6,731, has been in scintillating form as she continues her preparations for the European Championships in Barcelona in July.

Most recently she displayed her sprinting prowess when pipping fellow Briton and 400m Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu in the 150m at the Manchester Great City Games on 19 May.

606: DEBATE Will Ennis break Lewis's record?

"She is definitely on for a personal best, in the last couple of meetings she has shown she is in much better shape than she was last year," added Sotherton, who is out for the rest of the season with a back injury.

"It's a big thing to say because it's massive and we just want Jess to win and do well, and in that sense the points don't matter.

"But when she is so close to a record it would be nice to do it now so she doesn't have to worry about it in Barcelona."

Ennis's main competition at the Gotzis multi-events meeting, which is part of the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge, is likely to come from the Ukraine's reigning Olympic champion Nataliya Dobrynska and World Indoor pentathlon champion Tatyana Chernova of Russia.

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