Leaping into history
Britain’s Johnson-thompson produces one of athletics’ greatest performances to claim heptathlon gold – and now wants more
Over the course of one of the finest performances in recent British athletics history, Katarina Johnsonthompson stayed expressionless. She believed – just as she had somehow continued to believe through the pain of her very public previous failures – but she refused to succumb to her emotions.
The memories were too raw; the labels still too close. Choker. Bottler. She could not let it happen again. Not this time. Not with the world title in her grasp.
Step by gentle step she progressed, extending her lead with magnificent run after magnificent jump after magnificent throw until her only real rival, one of the greatest heptathletes in history, conceded defeat. Nafi Thiam, the Olympic, world and European champion could take it no more.
Troubled by an elbow problem and safe in the knowledge that Johnson-thompson was untouchable regardless of anything she threw at her, the Belgian donned her tracksuit and walked off midway through the penultimate event, the javelin. The game was up. With one event still remaining, Johnson-thompson had all but secured the world title. Still she gave no hint of what she was feeling. A new target had appeared.
Within months of appearing on the global stage as a wide-eyed teenager, Johnson-thompson had been labelled “the next Jessica Ennis-hill”. Surely it was unfair to even ask her to compete with Britain’s athletics queen. Yet here she was within sight of Ennis-hill’s remarkable national record set when winning Olympic gold at London 2012. In what became an 800-metre race against the clock, Johnsonthompson went for it, keeling over exhausted after the finish line to hear her final score: 6,981 points.
Better than Ennis-hill (by 36 points) and better than Denise Lewis. Having revealed earlier this year that she suffered from impostor syndrome, Johnson-thompson had proven even herself wrong. She was world champion and she most certainly belonged.
It is not difficult to see how such deep mental scars were created. Four years ago she looked certain to win her first World Championships medal only to crash out when failing to register a legal mark in the long jump. Two years on it was a dreadful high jump that let her down. In between, she finished only sixth at the Olympics.
An overhaul was required and so she bade farewell to her childhood coach, her home town of Liverpool and her beloved sausage dogs, throwing herself into a new life in Montpellier, France.
Slowly, her fortunes turned. A world indoor title paved the way for Commonwealth gold and European silver behind Thiam last year. She seemed – and until this performance it felt necessary only to whisper it – remarkably consistent.
Even then, she never envisaged anything like this. “I can’t believe this is the result,” she said. “I have had so many attempts, so to perform on this stage makes me so happy. The low moments have helped me come back, make the move [to Montpellier] and try and look inward. This has been my dream. I’ve found a formula that works, but I just want more.”
As for narrowly falling short of 7,000 points, she admitted: “It’s my career dream, so I am gutted to miss it.”
Day one had passed in a blur of near-perfection with 100m hurdles and shot put personal bests combining with a championship-best high jump and event-topping 200m to give her a 96-point cushion over Thiam overnight. The lead only grew.
A 6.77m long jump – her best during a heptathlon – kicked off the second day, while Thiam could go no further than 6.40m. If the Belgian was to deny her, the major swing would have to come in the javelin, an event Johnson-thompson has long seemed destined never to master. But on a night for fresh storylines, she wrote a new narrative, flinging it 43.93m with the best throw of her life.
Unlike at Rio, where Thiam threw a personal best despite an elbow injury, this time she had to submit, managing 48.04m before surrendering with one attempt remaining.
But this was no story of Johnsonthompson taking advantage of a wounded rival. By that point, she had already ground Thiam down. Even fully fit, the Belgian would not have won gold.
Another personal best 2 min 7.26 sec completed the rout in the 800m, with Thiam taking silver with 6,677 points and Austria’s Verena Preiner bronze in 6,560.
Ennis-hill said: “To come back and deliver in this way is incredible. You have to get to the lowest point, the breaking point. She got to that and she made big changes and they are the reason she has gone on to improve and become the world champion now.” Who would have thought it? Johnson-thompson: the woman for the big occasion.
After two British gold medals in two days, Laura Muir has faint hopes of completing the hat-trick in tomorrow’s 1500m final. Muir, who had not raced for 10 weeks prior to these World Championships after tearing her calf, dictated her semifinal from the front before crossing the line in third.