KAT GETS THE CREAM!
Johnson-Thompson wins heptathlon gold at last
KATARINA JOHNSON-THOMPSON last night broke Jessica Ennis-Hill’s British heptathlon record on her way to claiming a remarkable gold at the World Championships. The 26-year-old scored an astonishing 6,981 points to crush the olympic champion Nafi Thiam and go sixth
on the all-time list. She set four personal bests in seven events to leave herself on the brink of tears after adding a world outdoor gold to her Commonwealth, world indoor and European indoor titles. She said: ‘I’ve been waiting for this! It doesn’t make sense to me, this whole two days, because it’s been night time it has felt like a dream. It’s been unbelievable and I can’t believe this is the result. ‘It’s just been so many attempts at trying to perform on this stage, I’m just so so happy.’ The 26-year-old’s margin of victory over defending champion Thiam was a massive 304 points — a huge upset. It came 24 hours after Dina Asher-Smith’s gold medal in the 200m and takes the British team’s tally to three. After passing Ennis-Hill’s record of 6,955 points, JohnsonThompson, who had never previously finished higher than fifth in a global outdoor event, added: ‘The low moments have obviously helped me come back and with making the move, I’m just so happy.’ Ennis-Hill told the BBC: ‘To come back and deliver in this way with all these personal bests is incredible. You have to get to the lowest point, the breaking point. ‘She got to that and she made big changes and decisions and they are the reason she has gone on to improve and become the world champion.’ IOC PRESIDENT Thomas Bach has described Alberto Salazar’s four-year ban as ‘very worrying’ and has called on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to look at athletes who worked with the disgraced coach. This could include fourtime Olympic gold medallist Sir Mo Farah.