Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
KJT’S MEDAL DREAM FLOPS IN HIGH JUMP
KATARINA JohnsonThompson suffered fresh heartache in her attempt to follow in Jess Ennis-Hill’s golden footsteps.
A new coach, a new training set-up and a new positive outlook had brought the British heptathlete to the London Stadium convinced she could put the bad times behind her.
Instead, the long-time heir to Ennis-Hill’s throne endured a familiar mental collapse, on this occasion bombing in her favourite high jump discipline.
Her failure to get over 1.86 metres – when she holds the British record height of 1.98m – left her with a clearance of just 1.80m.
It added up to a loss of 233 points on her best height and almost certainly costing her a medal.
And last night’s shot put left her way down in 13th place on 2,745 points but with her strongest event – the 200m – up next. Her second put of 12.47 was her best and she could only produce 12.36 on her third as she lost further ground on theleaders.
The 24-year-old was left devastated after her high jump agony. On her third failure she collapsed to the mat, head in hands, visibly upset.
It was all too reminiscent of the 2015 Beijing World Championships where she fouled out of the long jump without registering a distance.
Similar too to the Rio Olympics last year when a series of poor throws left
her tear-stained among the also-rans.
“This is the big test for her and I think it has been a test for her in the past – the mental side of getting through the two days of heptathlon,” said Ennis-Hill.
Johnson-Thompson has natural talent to compare with Olympic champion Nafi Thiam, who once again leads the way. She proved it with a lifetime best performance in her last heptathlon. But that was not on the big stage.
With the world watching she has again come unstuck. She is so much better than this but needs to find a way to believe it.