Thursday 27 August 2015 10:36, UK
Katarina Johnson-Thompson bounced back from her heptathlon "walk of shame" by leaping into the long jump final at the World Championships in Beijing.
The 22-year-old saw her medal hopes in the seven-event competition dashed at the Bird's Nest Stadium on Sunday when she produced three fouls in the long jump, arguably her strongest discipline.
But the Liverpool athlete seized her shot at redemption with both hands, soaring out to 6.79m on her second attempt to book an automatic place in Friday's final.
Team-mate Lorraine Ugen qualified second with a jump of 6.87m but Shara Proctor, the Anguillan-born British record holder, will need a considerable improvement on her best jump of 6.68m if she is to challenge for a medal. She only scraped into the final by three centimetres in 11th place.
"I wanted to come out and put everything that was wrong right again," said Johnson-Thompson, who was able to steady any nerves by registering a valid first round jump of 6.54m.
"I was nervous. I was just thinking it was going to happen again."
Johnson-Thompson was compelled to finish the heptathlon if she wanted to take part in the long jump, despite her podium chances having gone, and she ambled around the track in the 800m, the final event, as she saved her legs for the days ahead.
"It was like a walk of shame," she said. "But there was nothing I could do about it. I didn't want to kill my legs off and not do well here."
She admitted she wanted to shut herself away following the disappointment and cried for two days straight.
"No more time for tears, I think I'm all dried out," Johnson-Thompson told Sky Sports.
"I just didn't want to bump into everyone, people were asking me if I was okay. When people were nice to me that's when I started to get upset.
"I didn't want to see anyone or have to talk to anyone."
No more time for tears, I think I'm all dried out.
Johnson-Thompson described the past few days as "really hard", but said words of support from Greg Rutherford have helped.
The speed of the runway has made timing the run up difficult and big names have crashed out in both the men's and women's competitions.
"It's such a fast track and the board is very unforgiving, so I'm glad I was able to get three jumps up on everyone," Johnson-Thompson told Sky Sports.
"It did make me - as cruel as it sounds - feel a little bit better, that it wasn't just me and I didn't flop."
America's Brittney Reese, the three-time reigning champion and Olympic champion, was one of those to go out, managing just 6.39m.
Proctor almost followed her and she said: "I was a little too passive, but I made it and that's all that matters."
American-born sisters Tiffany Porter and Cindy Ofili advanced to the semi-finals of the 100m hurdles, but in contrasting fashions.
Porter, the bronze medallist from Moscow two years ago, won her heat emphatically in 12.73 seconds, while younger sibling Ofili finished fourth in hers in 12.97 seconds.
Charlie Grice and Chris O'Hare progressed smoothly to the 1500m semis, Grice finishing fourth in his heat in 3:43.21 and O'Hare fifth in his in 3:38.43.
Steph Twell qualified for the final of the 5,000m as a fastest loser, coming 13th in her heat in 15:34.72.
But neither Isobel Pooley nor Morgan Lake qualified for the high jump final, with both unable to clear higher than 1.89m.
