Katarina Johnson-Thompson insists she is rapidly returning to fitness after suffering a quadriceps injury last month and believes she can challenge for heptathlon gold at the world championships, which begin in Beijing on Saturday.
The 22-year-old’s rivalry with Jessica Ennis-Hill is one of the highlights of the championships from a British perspective, although on form the Canadian Brianne Theisen-Eaton is a worthy favourite. However, Johnson-Thompson says she could yet surprise a few people.
“Given my preparation in the past three months I have tried to put my expectations a bit lower,” she says. “But it still doesn’t mean I am not going for gold. That’s what I have wanted from the start of the year so that’s what I am going to aim to get.
“Brianne is the favourite given what she scored in Götzis, but that doesn’t mean too much going into a major championships and especially the heptathlon, because anything can happen in seven events. But if Jess comes out in her London 2012 form it’s game over for everyone.”
Not that Johnson-Thompson is scared of Ennis-Hill, who she is on good terms with. “Have you met Jess? She’s not a scary person,” she says laughing.
Johnson-Thompson says her training has gone well since jumping 6.50m at the Anniversary Games three weeks ago. As she points out, it is not unusual for her to enter a championships with worries over injury: at the 2013 world championships in Moscow she finished fifth despite going over on her ankle a month beforehand.
“I ended up being 27 points off the bronze medal and ever since then I have been trying to aim higher than I think I can achieve.
“Training has been going well – I just haven’t had that competition practice. If I come out in Prague form, hopefully I will be challenging all the way.”
