‘New Ennis’ Katarina hopes selection snub will power her to long-jump glory
KATARINA JohnsonThompson plans to use the biggest snub of her career to propel her to glory in Poland today.
The athlete, labelled the next Jessica Ennis, goes for gold in the long jump at the World Indoor Championships, just days after being denied the opportunity to take part in her chosen pentathlon.
She qualified for the long jump final in sixth with a mark of 6.60m — three places behind team-mate Shara Proctor — then voiced her disappointment at watching the pentathlon from the sidelines. Johnson-Thompson said: ‘I’m trying to get over not being in the pentathlon and take my frustrations out on the long jump. I was so disappointed by the decision.’
The 21-year-old from Liverpool, Britain’s leading multi-discipline athlete with golden girl Jessica Ennis-Hill pregnant, withdrew from a final pentathlon qualifying contest after one event with a throat and chest infection.
In spite of her illness, the 21-year-old hoped she would receive a wildcard invitation from the IAAF, the sport’s governing body. However, the invite never came.
‘It was so hard to watch it happen on Friday,’ she said. ‘It’s very important to channel my emotions in the right way. You can’t just sprint out of the pits and be angry — otherwise, you’ll probably go over the marker!’
Johnson-Thompson had a superb junior career — two years ago she broke Ennis-Hill’s age-group national heptathlon record — but she acknowledges it is time she started to deliver as a senior.
She added: ‘It would be weird for my first senior medal to come not in my proper event.
‘But that’s what I’m aiming for. If I can’t get it here, then hopefully I can get one in the bag in the summer.
‘I’m not a junior any more. I have to step up. I think I’m an athlete who does that under under pressure and at big competitions.’