Johnson-Thompson surpasses 6,955-points haul set by Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill at 2012 Olympics to post new British record
Friday 4 October 2019 10:36, UK
Katarina Johnson-Thompson won heptathlon gold at the World Athletics Championships as she set a new British record to outclass Olympic and defending champion Nafissatou Thiam in Doha.
Johnson-Thompson finished on 6,981 points to surpass the 6,955-points haul set by Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill at the London Olympics in 2012 as she claimed her first global outdoor title.
The 26-year-old, who held an overnight 96-point lead over Thiam, produced another dominant day's display in the multi-events discipline to seal Great Britain their second gold medal of the Championships, following Dina Asher-Smith's 200m success on Wednesday.
Johnson-Thompson, who saw a day one lead overtaken by her Belgian rival as she finished second at last year's European Championships, ran a personal best time of 2:07.27 to win the 800m and seal overall victory.
Thiam took silver with 6677 points while Austria's Verena Preiner won bronze with 6560.
The Briton, who produced personal bests in the 100m hurdles and shot put on day one, recorded the biggest leap in the long jump with 6.77m to extend her overnight lead, as Thiam only managed 6.40m.
She then posted another personal best of 43.93m in the javelin. Meanwhile, a struggling Thiam, who appeared hindered by an elbow injury, managed 48.04m - a full 11m below her best - before she skipped her final throw, meaning victory appeared a formality for Johnson-Thompson as she held a 137-point lead going into the final event.
That left Thiam needing to beat Johnson-Thompson by 10 seconds in the 800m, but the Briton was never under threat as she streaked clear of her rival to take the crown.
Johnson-Thompson admitted winning the world title had felt like a dream.
She said: "It doesn't make sense to me honestly. These whole two days have been so fast and because it has been at night, it's actually felt like a dream. Doing it under the lights and everything was unbelievable.
"I can't believe this is the result. I have had so many attempts at this result so to perform on this stage makes me so happy."
Meanwhile, Britain's Laura Muir qualified for the women's 1500m final with a third-place finish in her semi-final.
The Scot, who had not raced for three months prior to the heats on Tuesday, ran four minutes 01.05 to finish behind America's Jenny Simpson, while Muir's training partner Gabriela Debues-Stafford was second.
Fellow Briton Sarah McDonald missed out on the final as she finished sixth in 4:15.73 but Ireland's Ciara Mageean did enough to qualify along with 10000m champion Sifan Hassan of Netherlands.
Elsewhere, Britain's Sophie McKinna bowed out of the shot put final as she failed to finish in the top-eight after the opening three rounds.
The 25-year-old threw a personal-best 18.61m in qualifying but settled for 11th place with her best effort of 17.99m on Thursday.
Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain ran 48.14secs - a world-leading time - to beat Bahamas' Shaunae Miller-Uibo to gold in the 400m in a race which saw the top-five all run personal bests.
The 21-year-old's time was the third-fastest time in history as Jamaica's Shericka Jackson picked up bronze with a personal-best time of 49.47s.
Niklas Kaul won decathlon gold at the age of 21 as he clocked 4:15:70 to win the 1500m and get gold with 8691 points.
The German finished ahead of Estonia's Maicel Uibo's 8604 and Damian Warner, who won bronze with 8529 as the Canadian won his third world medal.
Earlier, world-record holder Kevin Mayer of France pulled out of the decathlon after seven events, while leading, after sustaining what appeared to be a pulled hamstring in the 110m hurdles.
Johnson-Thompson's performance was what any coach would want their athlete to execute. Seven events littered with personal and season's bests. Her disastrous heptathlon at the World Championships in Beijing in 2015 consigned to a dustbin now her undoubted potential has been realised.
Questions have long been raised, rightly or wrongly, about her mental toughness on the big stage. What timing to leap that hurdle by beating Olympic, European and defending world champion Nafissatou Thiam and also doing so with just over nine months until the Tokyo Olympics.
With hindsight now the heptathlon is complete, KJT utterly dominated it. Thiam may have had an elbow injury which hampered her javelin, but I just can't see even if her elbow was in tip-top condition how the Belgian could have lived with the Brit tonight.
