Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson celebrates after winning the gold medal in the women’s heptathlon on Thursday.
“A bruise is a lesson and each lesson makes us better.”
Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s feat at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 was a living example of this phrase.
After failing at the past two world championships, the British star bounced back in record-breaking fashion to win her heptathlon gold medal at the Khalifa International Stadium on late Thursday night.
Johnson-Thompson, who was no-marked in the long jump at the 2015 edition in Beijing and ended up fifth at London 2017, accumulated world leading 6981 points and claimed personal bests across four events, setting a new British record to win the title.
She broke Jessica Ennis-Hill’s record by 26 points as she dethroned Belgium’s Nafi Thiam to climb to sixth on the all-time lists with the biggest winning margin of victory. Thiam got the silver 6677 points while Austria’s Verena Preiner won bronze medal with 6560 points.
Johnson-Thompson couldn’t believe her points tally that gave her a new British record.
“It hasn’t settled in. I was there at London 2012 to witness her (Ennis-Hill) break her own British record and get the Olympic gold medal, so it’s unbelievable to me that I’ve just passed that score,” said the Briton.
While Johnson-Thompson was happy with her overall performance, she was amused with her slick run in the hurdles.
“The hurdles was the biggest surprise. I never dreamed I could run that fast, 13-zero, when I’ve been stuck at 13.3 for as long as I can remember. That set me up for the heptathlon as soon as I saw the clock stop at that time.
“The most challenging event was the 200 because of the tight schedule and we didn’t get a chance to warm up properly,” she said.
On how she approached the 800m knowing a record was possible, she said: “I love the 800m, funnily enough. It is one of my strongest events. I have been training very hard for it this year. The light show before it got me psyched to go.
“I train very hard week in, week out for it so all that has to be for something. It’s a good way to finish off a heptathlon for me, to just go out and put it all on the line. Seven thousand points wasn’t meant to be but hopefully I am on a roll now for the future,” Johnson-Thompson said.
For Thiam – the Olympic and European champion – who started well on the first day, javelin became a stiff challenge.
“I did a very good first day – my best ever at a championship. There wasn’t one event I was super happy with, I just had a good level,” she said.
“The most challenging was the javelin. Mentally it’s the hardest for me to go through that again.”
Preiner, who was not in contention of a medal was delighted with a podium finish.
“I’m really happy with my performance. I knew I could fight for a medal when I came here, but what happened tonight is really unbelievable,” she said.
