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World Athletics Championships: Katarina Johnson-Thompson makes dream start in heptathlon


Johnson-Thompson smashes hurdles best in dream heptathlon start
2019 World Athletics Championships
Venue: Khalifa International Stadium, Doha Dates: 27 September-6 October
Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport website and app; Listen live on BBC Radio 5 Live; Live streams, clips and text commentary online.

Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson produced two personal bests to put pressure on defending world heptathlon champion Nafissatou Thiam.

Belgian Thiam leads by 51 points but looked disappointed with 15.22m in the shot put at the World Championships.

The Briton won her 100m hurdles race in Doha in 13.09 seconds – 0.21secs better than her previous best.

She leapt to 1.95cm in the high jump before 13.86m in the shot put – 71cm further than she had ever thrown.

Johnson-Thompson has 3,067 points after three disciplines. There is one more event on Wednesday – the 200m (19:50 BST) – with the final three on Thursday.

Dutch athlete Nadien Broersen is third with 2.894 points.

Commonwealth champion Johnson-Thompson is looking for her first major outdoor global medal.

Denise Lewis, Britain’s Olympic heptathlon champion at Sydney in 2000, told BBC Sport: “We’ve seen her face so glum for so many years so to conquer it here is just fantastic. She is demonstrating that she is a competitor. She is ready.”

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, Britain’s former world and Olympic heptathlon champion, was also impressed by Johnson-Thompson’s start to the competition.

“That’s how you want to begin a heptathlon,” said the 33-year-old. “She got into her running and halfway down the track you saw her get into her rhythm.

“I almost thought Thiam was going backwards, but Kat was just pulling away from her.”



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