KAT AND MOUSE CLASSIC DOMINATES THE 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 away Nafissatou Thiam?
The worry, of course, is JohnsonThompson has flattered to deceive before. Sometimes it’s the throws. Sometimes the body. Sometimes the head.
But last night, moments before Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake took silver in the 200 metres and Holly Bradshaw a pole vault bronze, she gave herself her strongest chance yet to topple this 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, but possibly a third gold.
There is still a monumentally long way to go, especially with the javelin to come this morning. Thiam could feasibly put 300 points on Johnson-Thompson in that discipline alone. But the Brit is capable of putting a good dent in the world and Olympic champion in the long jump, so it will be fascinating to see the state of play when they line up for the concluding 800m at 7.20pm.
Johnson-Thompson 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’m here to try and win.’
Her start to the day was good, with 13.34sec clocked in the 100m hurdles. Surprisingly, Thiam carded a sluggish 13.69sec, while only Germany’s Carolin Schafer was quicker than JohnsonThompson. A 1.91m clearance followed to jointly win the high jump – tied with Thiam — and then the best improvement in her worst event, the shot put.
In the 200m, she ran 12.88sec, almost two seconds quicker than Thiam and the best in a European heptathlon. It left her 167 points clear of Schafer in third.
Later, Mitchell-Blake stormed back on the home straight to take 200m silver behind world champion Ramil Guliyev, who crossed in a championship record 19.76sec. Adam Gemili was fifth.
Bradshaw then followed world and European indoor medals with an impressive bronze after succeeding with her final attempt at 4.75m.