DALEY BACKING KAT BID

DALEY THOMPSON has backed Katarina Johnson-Thompson in her against-the-odds bid to retain her World Championship heptathlon crown.

Britain’s multi-eventing queen starts her two-day title defence at Hayward Field with a fitness question mark after an injury-plagued run since winning in Doha in 2019.

Johnson-Thompson

(right) admits that a ruptured Achilles in her left leg has affected her take-off in the long jump – for so long the trump card for her in the sevendiscipline event.

But two-time Olympic decathlon champion Thompson has faith in the 29-year-old Liverpudlian’s fighting qualities. Thompson said: “Kat seems to have in the last few years made that step forward from somebody who is full of promise to somebody who is delivering – somebody who actually believes in herself a bit more.

“The way she has battled back from injury shows the kind of character that she is.”