Johnson-Thompson wins heptathlon gold

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Johnson-Thompson wins heptathlon gold Posted On 04 October 2019

Katarina Johnson-Thompson breaks British record to win the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships

Johnson-Thompson set four personal bests and pushed her body to the max at the World Athletics Championships scoring 6981 points, surpassing the previous record of 6955 set by Jessica Ennis-Hill at the London Olympics in 2012.

After breaking through at the 2012 Olympics, it hasn’t been smooth sailing for Johnson-Thompson with many injuries and bad luck stopping her from reaching her full potential. But over two days in Doha she didn’t fluff her lines or fall foul of injury.

After crossing the finish line to beat all-time great Nafi Thiam, she said, “I was always worried, I thought I was going to run out of the line in the 800m and I was going to get disqualified. I didn’t take anything for granted until I saw my name on the scoreboard.”

This was Great Britain’s second gold medal at the championships which moves them up to fourth in the medal table behind Jamaica, China and the USA. Dina Asher-Smith has the other Gold which she won in the Women’s 200m and a Silver medal in the Women’s 100m.

The 23-year-old has now set her sights on Olympic Gold and becoming one of the greatest athletes of all time after her win in the 200m. “I’m an athlete and a competitor and I want to see how fast I can go, and if I can push myself into being one of the best athletes of all time,” said Asher-Smith.

Asher-Smith has the chance to win a hat-trick of medals this weekend when she competes in the 4x100m. Today there are six Gold medals up for grabs; men’s high-jump, women’s discus, women’s 400m hurdles, men’s 3,000m steeplechase, men’s 400m and men’s 20km walk, where Tom Bosworth of Great Britain is a front-runner.

The World Athletics Championships will come to a close on Sunday evening. Live coverage is available on the BBC.