If anyone doubts the scale of Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s ambitions, then they should have been in the mixed zone moments after she had won her first senior championship gold at the European Indoor Championships, broken Jessica Ennis-Hill’s British pentathlon record, and become only the second athlete to break the 5,000 points barrier. She was happy, of course. But her tears told you she wanted a whole lot more.
“I’ve been tearing my brains out these last couple of weeks thinking I could get the world record so to come so close, yeah, I’m disappointed,” she admitted.
Johnson-Thompson’s score of exactly 5,000 fell just 13 points short of Nataliya Dobrynska’s world record of 5,013 set in 2012. Going into the final event, the 800m, the 22-year-old from Liverpool was convinced she could dip under 2:11.68 to break the record. As her name was announced she smiled and crossed her fingers, but lady luck was not on her side. She burst out in front at the gun but without someone alongside her to push her she faded over the last 200m to finish in 2:12.78.
Later, after Johnson-Thompson had received her gold medal and the acclaim of the crowd for a final time, she was able to put her extraordinary day into more perspective. But it clearly still hurt.
“If someone had said to me you’ve got 5,000 points and a gold medal at the beginning of the day I would have taken it,” she said. “But as I crossed the line I was gutted. I was like ‘Oh my god I can’t believe I didn’t run that 2.11, but it’s hard front running right from the start. It’s regretful, but its still a good score.”
Ennis-Hill, who held the previous British record with a score of 4,965 was quick to congratulate her compatriot on Twitter, saying: “Well done Kat!! Amazing performance! Sad to see my record go but couldn’t have gone to a more deserving athlete!”
Meanwhile Morgan Lake, Britain’s prodigiously talented 17-year-old multi-eventer, also showed she belonged in this company by finishing ninth with a score of 4,527.
There were also medals for Britain in the women’s 60m hurdles, with Lucy Hatton winning silver with a superb personal best of 7.90 sec and Serita Solomon taking bronze in 7.93, behind winner Alina Talay of Belarus. However, Lawrence Clarke had to be content with fifth in the men’s 60m hurdles as the French took a 1-2-3 with Pascal Martinot-Lagarde taking gold.
But for British eyes the day was, inevitably, centred on Johnson-Thompson. Those at the team hotel had sensed that she might be a little nervous given the weight of expectation on those slender shoulders. Not a bit of it.
A personal best of 8.18 sec in the first event of the day, the 60m hurdles, put her immediately on the front foot and she quickly followed that up by clearing 1.95m in the high jump for a score of 1,171 points, which placed her nearly 200 points ahead of the field.
Johnson-Thompson was always going to struggle in the third event, the shot put. It is an irony that her coach Mike Holmes is a specialist throws coach – yet its mysteries still continue to bamboozle her. Even so, while she finished last of the 13 throwers, a season’s best of 12.32m for a score of 682 points at least limited the damage.
It meant, however, that Johnson-Thompson was now in second place, behind the 20-year-old Belgian Nafissatou Thiam, whose PB of 14.80 had put her 36 points ahead. But this was a temporary illusion. One monster long jump leap of 6.89m immediately put Johnson-Thompson 200 points clear on the scoreboard – and back on course for the world record.
Breaking had now been reduced to a simple target: run the 800m in under 2:11.86. Given her outdoor personal best was 2:07.64 the odds were with her. But no one could be sure if the gods would be too – or how Johnson-Thompson would cope with the wearying demands of five events in one day. In the end they proved just too much.
Earlier Ennis-Hill had tweeted pictures of herself looking supremely fit after a trip to America. The London 2012 Olympic champion is due to return to competition later this spring following the birth of her son, Reggie, last year. She now has a better idea of what awaits her. The rest of us, meanwhile, can only await the battle between these two supremely gifted athletes, perhaps even as soon as Götzis in May, with feverish anticipation.
