Johnson-Thompson faces tall order to dethrone Thiam in Olympic heptathlon | Paris Olympic Games 2024

Katarina Johnson-Thompson has a mountain to climb to take the gold medal in the heptathlon after falling behind her rival Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium on day two with only one discipline still to come.

With just the 800m to go on Friday evening in the seven-discipline event, Johnson-Thompson found herself 121 points behind the Belgian, who pulled off a season best in the javelin to propel herself into the lead after six disciplines. The Swiss athlete Annik Kaelin showed grit to go third after a strong long jump and decent javelin in the morning session.

To take the gold Johnson-Thompson – who regained her world title in Budapest last year – would have to take a sizeable lead in the final race and finish eight seconds ahead of Thiam.

Thiam, who took gold in both Tokyo and Rio, was 45 points behind Johnson-Thompson going into the javelin. Johnson-Thompson, who went in the first group, had kept the pressure on the Belgian with a season’s best 44.64m throw giving her 757 points. Her second throw was a foul, but she improved her distance again on the third, another 2024 best of 45.49m.

Knowing she had to perform in one of her strongest events, Thiam held nothing back, throwing a massive 54.04m and beating her season’s best by more than a metre. Her second was a foul and her third reached 52.56m. It didn’t matter: her first throw had already put clear water between herself and her rival.

The 31-year-old Johnson-Thompson put in a courageous performance on the second day of the heptathlon after a shaky start in the long jump, the first of the morning’s events.

Johnson-Thompson – who has an outdoor 6.92m personal best in the discipline – registered only 4.65m on her first jump. She managed 6.04m on her second, registering the score with a frown. But her third jump was a decent 6.40m. Thiam made 6.41m – slightly narrowing the 48-point difference between them to 45.

Johnson-Thompson had started the day with a 48-point lead with Thiam in second with 4,007 and the younger American challenger Anna Hall in third with 3,956. The British athlete looked relaxed and confident, and almost like she was enjoying herself, on the opening day of the heptathlon, managing season-bests in the high jump and 100m hurdles and a huge personal best in the shot put.

Speaking at the end of the first day she said: “It was a good day, a very good day, one of the best I’ve had in a long time … There were a couple of really good signs and a good couple of events. I’m really, really pleased with it.”

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But she stressed that her 48-point lead going into the second day didn’t “really mean anything”. She added: “I’m happy that I’ve been able to put together solid events and work on my weaknesses. Another day tomorrow – it’s not over yet.”

Her run into these Games had not been smooth – she was forced to pull out of the European championships in Rome at the start of June after three events.

If she takes silver it will be a huge achievement for a veteran athlete who has two world titles, two Commonwealth titles and a European silver, but has not been able to reach her Olympic potential. She finished 14th at her debut Games in 2012, came sixth in 2016 and could not finish at Tokyo 2020 because of injury.

If Thiam secures gold for a third consecutive Games it will cement her position as one of the greatest athletes of the modern era.