Now for the world Johnson-thompson’s lifetime best
Briton destroys field to put pressure on Thiam Coach insists sky is the limit for heptathlete
Remember when Katarina Johnson-thompson was known for her flakiness? When she always seemed like an accident waiting to happen? No longer.
Frankly, it should come as no surprise that she destroyed a worldclass heptathlon field by an astronomical 337 points in Gotzis over the weekend, or that she did so with a lifetime-best tally of 6,813. And it should come as no surprise if she wins the world title this autumn or Olympic gold next year.
That is what has come to be expected of Johnson-thompson over the past couple of years: she delivers, and she is now arguably Britain’s best hope of standing atop the athletics podium at Tokyo 2020.
Certainly, if the absent Nafi Thiam, the Olympic and world champion, was following events in Austria from afar, she will be in no doubt that she faces a proper challenge to her dual crowns over the next 15 months.
So much for Johnson-thompson’s pre-competition revelation that she sometimes feels like an impostor at these events. If anyone belongs at the highest level it is her.
“I’m so happy I can say I’m over 6,800 points,” she said. “It’s been a big dream of mine, so hopefully it will just go up from here.
“I’ve won a couple of championships not with the greatest scores, but now I’m winning this with a decent score, so it’s another step forward in my career. Now I just need medals. For sure, medals.”
Leading by a hefty 177 points overnight, she had begun the second day a huge odds-on favourite to continue her march to victory, only to start with a foul in the long jump.
Not long ago, panic would have ensued, and she admitted afterwards that her thoughts instantly transported her back to the 2015 World Championships – where she failed to produce a legal mark in the long jump – before she was able to “switch out of that mentality”.
Instead, she calmly readjusted her run-up and promptly launched herself to a winning mark of 6.68 metres. “The most impressive thing about her now is she always finds a way out,” said Bertrand Valcin, her coach.
With any thoughts of crisis averted, she moved on to the javelin – an event she has dreaded for much of her career – and threw a personal best 42.92m.
So great was her lead that she could have theoretically treated the 800m as a sedate victory parade. She did nothing of the sort, embarking on an extremely ambitious 59.41sec opening lap, before clinging on as her body gave way to complete the second in 68.87sec.
It did the job, but as she lay prostrate for close to five minutes after the race, only moving exhaustedly to vomit, she may well have reflected on a headstrong tactic not to be repeated in the future.
“I was very sick after the 800m,” she said. “I didn’t think I would get to the line. I thought the stretcher would have to come get me.”
No lasting damage was done and her new lifetime-best tally not only secured a resounding victory, but also came within 18 points of overtaking Denise Lewis, who sits second on the British all-time list.
Latvia’s Laura Ikauniece was 337 points behind in second, with Xenia Krizsan, of Hungary, a further seven points back in third.
Thoughts now turn to the World Championships in Doha in September and her battle with Thiam, who makes her return from injury next month. Perhaps still scarred by past failures to make global podiums, Johnson-thompson refused to get carried away when asked whether she was now the second-best heptathlete in the world. She undoubtedly is, but replied: “Not until the championships does this matter.”
As for how high her goals should go, Valcin’s answer was bold. “There are no limits.”