Katarina Johnson-Thompson sets personal best in Gotzis heptathlon

Dan Mullan/Getty Images
Tom Doyle28 May 2017

Katarina Johnson-Thompson returned to form after a two-year struggle by setting a heptathlon personal best in Gotzis, but could only secure fourth place as Belgium's Nafissatou Thiam broke the 7,000-point barrier.

Johnson-Thompson, who was reduced to tears by her sixth-placed finish at last summer's Olympics and responded by overhauling her training set-up, scored 6,691 points at the prestigious Hypo-Meeting, beating her previous best of 6,682 from the same event in 2014.

It was a hugely encouraging weekend for the 24-year-old, who knew in the wake of her Rio disappointment she needed to make drastic changes to revitalise a stuttering career and made the bold move to split with her long-term coach Mike Holmes, leave her home city of Liverpool and move to a training base in Montpellier.

However, she was no match for Olympic champion Thiam, who eclipsed the mark she won gold with in Rio to go third on the all-time list, her score of 7,013 the best total by anyone in a decade.

Only world record holder Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Sweden's Carolina Kluft have ever bettered it.

Thiam's mark towered over the now-retired Jessica Ennis-Hill's British record, set at the London 2012 Olympics, of 6,955.

Ennis-Hill acknowledged the achievement on Twitter by writing: "WOW 7013pts in the hept for thiam-nafi INCREDIBLE score!! Congratulations!! What a performance!"

Germany's Carolin Schafer was second with 6,836 and Latvia's Laura Ikauniece-Admidina third with 6,815 as the top six finishers all set personal bests in one of the most high-calibre heptathlon competitions ever staged.

Johnson-Thompson's mark was the highest fourth-place score ever recorded in a heptathlon.

Johnson-Thompson has long been regarded as the heir apparent to Ennis-Hill's multi-eventing throne, but the landscape has now changed and the competition for medals, let alone gold, at this summer's World Championships in London is set to be fiercer than ever.

Johnson-Thompson lay in first place overnight, on the back of a brilliant 200 metres, and enjoyed a solid second day, but knows the points she concedes in the throwing events, the shot put and javelin, will continue to harm her chances.

Her shot on Saturday of 12.72m, her best ever in a heptathlon competition, was still the second worst throw of the top 14 athletes in Gotzis, while her javelin on Sunday of 39.98m, still her best in a heptathlon since 2014, was the second worst of the top 16.

It was a nearly 20m short of Thiam's monster effort of 59.32, a difference of 374 points.

Furthermore, Ikauniece-Admidina threw 56.17m and Schafer 49.80m.

The event, the penultimate one, sent Johnson-Thompson, who is more than a match for her rivals on the track and in the jumps, from seven points off top spot to out of podium contention.

She had started the day with a leap of 6.53m in the long jump and finished it by clocking two minutes 11.12 seconds over 800m.

Thiam, 22, who set four personal bests over the seven events, cleared 6.56m in the long jump and clocked 2mins 15.24secs over two laps to set the highest score since Kluft won the world title with 7,032 in Osaka in 2007.

Additional reporting by the Press Association.

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