Johnson-Thompson says she has made big strides with her fitness

Katarina Johnson-Thompson is confident there is much more to come as she completes her preparations for the Tokyo Olympics convinced she is now fully fit.

The 28- year-old World heptathlon champion returned to long jump action at the Muller British Grand Prix in Gateshead on Tuesday night having fought a seven-month battle to recover from a ruptured Achilles tendon which at one point threatened her participation in the Games.

She managed a modest, by her standards, best attempt of 6.10 metres to finish in eighth place, but she emerged healthy and knowing what she now needs to do in the lead-up to her event.

Johnson-Thompson said: “That proves that I’m 100 per cent fit. I only got one no-jump. It’ s proved I’ ve made big st rides and that I can come out and do the full five jumps off my full approach. Hopefully over the coming weeks, I can work on my technique a bit more and the distance will come in Tokyo, I’m sure.”

Johnson-Thomson opened with 6.07 and improved by a centimetre in the third round before finishing with her longest jump, but it was not the numbers which mattered.

She said: “I didn’t know what to expect. It was all about the feeling, I was about trying to get on to the board, it was about getting back to my 19-stride run-up.

“I’ve been 100 per cent fit and that was the first time that I went off that run-up since maybe Doha, so I know that I can handle it and that my body can handle it. Now I just have to think about what to do when I actually take off. It sounds so simple, I know.”

Asked about her goals for Tokyo, where she will renew her battle with Nafi Thiam, she replied :“My goals are always the same. My goals are to get to the start line confident and healthy, and I’m slowly getting there, for sure.”

It proved a positive night too for British pole vaulter Holly Brad shaw, who finished second to American Sandi Morris, but cleared a significant hurdle in her own mind.

Bradshaw set a new British record at 4.90 min Manchester last month and admitted she has struggled in the aftermath.

She said: “I didn’t realise how much it hit me, really. But it was a massive moment in my career and it just took a lot out of me physically and mentally, and then because I’d jumped 4.90m, I got a bit ahead of myself.”