The elfin features and radiant smile lit up the Olympic stadium in Berlin.

And the fervent hope was that in Jessica Ennis British athletics had its face of 2012.

No-one would want to weigh down Ennis with pressure and expectation still so far out from the London Olympics.

But the 23-year-old heptathlete who missed the Beijing Games with a stress fracture of an ankle has that golden girl look.

Rarely can a British athlete have returned from 12 months on the sidelines to enjoy a year in 2009 which promised so much.

She accomplished a personal best at the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge in Desenzano del Garda, winning the competition with a total of 6,587 points, which included an 800m best.

Then she went into the world championships as the only British athlete ranked number one in the world and left with a gold medal around her neck and a personal best points total of 6,731.

Yet if Ennis raised expectations then she was not alone among women's athletes.

Those present in London's 02 Arena on a heady weekend in October could vouch for that.

The technical and scoring mysteries of the spectacular tumbles and somersaults involved in gymnastics are best left to the experts but you did not need to have followed the sport for a lifetime to acknowledge that something special was stirring inside the old Millennium Dome.

It was obvious in the passion and excitement of the packed crowd as they roared Beth Tweddle to a world title on the floor which might yet prove to be a dress rehearsal for London 2012.

Listen to Tweddle and you get some idea of how competing on home ground will lift the athletes in less than three years' time.

"Having the home crowd really helps," Tweddle said.

"A lot of people said it added more pressure but, to be honest, it was one of the easiest floor exercises I've ever done. The crowd just kind of did it for me."

In another year Tweddle's feats would have made her a cast-iron favourite for the sportswoman of the year prize, but this was not any old year.

It was one when so many British women demonstrated the difference lottery funding and the London 2012 feelgood factor was making throughout the shires.

The cyclists, as we have become accustomed, were thrilling once more. The wonderful Victoria Pendleton and the not-to-be-outdone Lizzie Armitstead both won gold, silver and bronze at the world track championships.

Then there was swimmer Joanne Jackson who set a world record in the 400m freestyle (long course) in a time of 4:00.66, beating her British rival and reigning Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington in the process.

Jackson went on to claim silvers in the 400m and 800m freestyle at the World Championships and bronze in the 4x200m freestyle relay - the most medals any British swimmer has ever won in a single world championships.

Mention, too, should be made of England women's football team who reached the European championship final before succumbing to Germany, giving rumour to stories that coach Hope Powell was about to become the first woman coach of a Football League club.

And England's women cricketers were determined not to be left in the shadow of the Ashes-winning men.

They won the 2009 World Cup in Australia, defeating New Zealand by four wickets in the final with the prolific Claire Taylor the best batswoman in the tournament and Laura Marsh the most successful bowler.

To cap that Taylor was named one of Wisden's five cricketers of the year, the first woman to be honoured with the award in its 120-year history.

England went on to underline their dominance of the women's game with victory in the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship at Lord's, Taylor taking the player of the series award.

As if that was not enough England completed the season by retaining the Ashes with a draw in the one-off Test at New Road, Worcester, with fast bowler Katherine Brunt taking seven wickets.

Taylor, Tweddle, Jackson and Pendleton. They all excelled. But when it comes to the sportswoman of the year it has to be Ennis and a radiant smile which forever will live in the memory.