It’s a Kat and mouse classic in heptathlon
JUST as dark clouds rolled over Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, Katarina JohnsonThompson brought a storm to the door of the best heptathlete in the world. The question is whether it will fizzle out like all the others, or might it just blow Nafissatou Thiam away?
The worry, of course, is that Johnson-Thompson has previously flattered to deceive. Sometimes it’s the throws. Sometimes it’s the body. Sometimes it’s the head.
But last night, moments before Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake took 200 metres silver and Holly Bradshaw a bronze in the pole vault, she gave herself her strongest chance yet to topple the great Belgian.
With her best ever day-one haul of 4,017, she is 87 points ahead of Thiam at the top of the leaderboard and suddenly in a position to aim not just for a third medal of the year today, but possibly, maybe, a third gold.
Granted, there is still a monumentally long way to go. Indeed, the fact Johnson-Thompson will have to throw a javelin at some stage this morning means that much is obvious, because Thiam could feasibly put 300 points on her in that discipline alone.
But Johnson-Thompson is capable of putting a good dent in the world and Olympic champion in both the long jump and the concluding 800m, so it will be fascinating to see how this plays out.
At the very least, Thiam, the third highest scoring heptathlete in history and unbeaten in more than two years, knows she is in a fight. As she told journalists from her home nation on her way out: ‘I’ve got a battle on.’
For Johnson-Thompson, this challenge feels different to previous years, which have been punctuated with so much top-level disappointment.
That change is possibly down to the confidence gained in what has been a breakthrough year. She has admitted her previous shortcomings under pressure, but after winning world indoor gold and then another in the Commonwealth Games she has cut a slightly different figure. Funny how winning can do that.
She wasn’t getting carried away last night, and nor should she given a medal other than gold still feels more likely, but there was an excitement for what was unfolding.
‘I’m definitely not going to give up easily,’ she said. ‘I’ll give a tough battle back for sure. I’m here to try and win for sure.
‘I’m just happy with everything today.’
Her start to the day was good, with 13.34sec clocked in the 100m hurdles to put her fourth fastest for the session and just 0.05sec shy of her personal best.
Surprisingly, Thiam carded a sluggish 13.69sec, while only Germany’s Carolin Schafer of the medallists from last year’s World Championships was quicker than Johnson-Thompson.
A 1.91m clearance followed to jointly win the high jump — tied with Thiam who has a marginally better personal best — and then the best improvement in her worst event: the shot put. She managed 13.09m, which was more than two metres down on Thiam, but her best in a championships. So often she flops it to around 12m, so those points were huge.
In the 200m, she ran 12.88sec, almost two seconds quicker than Thiam and the best ever in a European Championship heptathlon.
It was a brilliant run at the end of a formidably consistent first day that has her 167 points clear of Schafer in third.
Later in the evening, MitchellBlake ( right) stormed back on the home straight to take 200m silver behind world champion Ramil Guliyev, who crossed in a championship record 19.76sec. It continued Britain’s fine sprint record in Berlin after the 100m successes of Zharnel Hughes and Dina Asher-Smith, but MitchellBlake was disappointed. After finishing in 20.04sec, Mitchell-Blake said: ‘I didn’t win. I came here to win. He’s world champion but it’s a final and you’ve just got to bring it out the bag. ‘I didn’t win, I’m sorry guys. I love competing, I’m a sore loser and it’s my first piece of senior silverware and I’ll take that into consideration but the season is not over.’ Adam Gemili was fifth. Bradshaw followed world and European indoor medals with an impressive bronze after succeeding with her final attempt at 4.75m. She said: ‘It’s the first time in four years that I’ve been able to put a full year of training together without an injury or surgery, so I felt really confident that I could keep building and building this year. ‘There are some higher bars there so I’m looking forward to the rest of the season and the future.’ Laura Muir, the huge favourite for the 1500m, starts her campaign today before Sunday’s final. She has declared herself fit after a recent achilles problem.