Sean Ingle reports on Johnson-Thompson’s remarkable women’s heptathlon bronze medal:
And here is Jack Snape on Mackenzie Little’s javelin bronze:
Wanyonyi adds to Olympic gold with 800m victory
Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi delivered a superb gun-to-tape victory - just - to win the world 800 metres gold with a championship record, in a glorious follow up to his Olympic title last year.
The 21-year-old has been the form man in the event all season and, though he says he does not like front running, he did just that from the start.
He began to tire on the final straight but had just enough left in the legs to hold off Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati in a time of 1:41.86 seconds.
Sedjati took silver in 1:41.90, an upgrade from bronze in Paris, as Marco Arop, Canada’s defending champion and silver medallist at the Olympics, battled through strongly for bronze in 1:41.95.
Ireland’s Cian McPhillips was an impressive fourth in an Irish national record of 1:42.15. Reuters
Chebet wins women’s 5,000m to complete World Championship double
Beatrice Chebet outsprinted fellow Kenyan Faith Kipyegon in a stunning finish to win the women’s 5,000 metres world title on Saturday, completing a 5,000-10,000 double in Tokyo to match her Olympic haul last year.
The world record holder’s victory in 14 minutes 54.36 seconds completed her set of global distance titles and denied 1,500m champion Kipyegon a double of her own in Tokyo.
Given Chebet’s devastating kick, Kipyegon might feel she made her break to the front on the last lap a bit early and she had to settle for silver in 14:55.07.
Bronze went to Nadia Battocletti in 14:55.42 to complete a sensational championships for the Italian, who won silver in the 10,000m behind Chebet.
“Running with the likes of Faith and Nadia you just have to believe in yourself. Today was not an easy race,” said Chebet.
“I came here without pressure and I knew I should not stress myself. If you lose or win, you need to believe in yourself and in being able to come back stronger.
“Going home with two gold medals makes me really happy. I’ve had an amazing season.”
American Shelby Houlihan overhauled former world record holder Gudaf Tsegay to finish fourth in 14:57.42 and leave distance-running powerhouse Ethiopia without a title in Tokyo.
The humid conditions returned to the Japanese capital on Saturday evening and the race was run at a relatively slow pace until three laps from the finish.
Battocletti took over at the front two laps from home with Kipyegon tucked in on her shoulder and when the defending champion made her break early on the final lap, Chebet followed.
In scenes more reminiscent of a 400 metres race, 25-year-old Chebet exploded off the bend to mow down her rival on the final straight and win gold.
“I’m so happy. I really thank God to go home with a silver medal,” said Kipyegon. “I was just praying to be on the podium...
“Congratulations to Beatrice, my friend. I knew it was very hard to beat Beatrice ... she’s very strong and I’m happy for her.” Reuters
Johnson-Thompson shares heptathlon bronze with Brooks as Hall wins gold
Anna Hall won the heptathlon 800 metres in two minutes 06.08 seconds at the world championships on Saturday to secure her first global gold medal and bring the world title back to the United States for the first time since 1993.
Bronze medallist in Eugene in 2022 and second in Budapest in 2023, Hall lost a large part of her 2024 season after knee surgery but finally reached the top step of a major podium with a dominant two-day performance.
The 24-year-old scored 6,888 points to give her country a first world champion heptathlete since Jackie Joyner-Kersee won her second title in Stuttgart.
“This gold means so much,” she said. “Jackie and I have talked about the worlds and I am so glad to finally get my gold.
“I struggled with injuries in 2024 and my body did not let me perform to my full potential in Paris (at the Olympics).”
Ireland’s Kate O’Connor finished second with a national record 6,714 points, while Britain’s defending champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson and American Taliyah Brooks shared bronze after finishing with an identical tally of 6,581.
Johnson-Thompson finished second behind Hall in the 800m in 2:07.38 while Brooks managed ninth after running a personal best 2:13.17, which proved enough to tie the Briton on points and keep her on the podium.
“To share bronze is a special situation for us and I couldn’t be more proud, even it’s a joint medal,” said Brooks.
“I think we both deserve it, we both worked really hard and had a lot of ups and downs, so it came down to the 800 metres as it always does. We both fought until the end.” Reuters
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Following the 800m final, Britain’s Max Burgin told BBC Sport: “Getting a personal best pretty much means you’re operating close to maximum. If I were to have got that time in any other race this year I would have been buzzing but in that one there it just feels disappointing really. It’s just wasn’t meant to be.
“Positioning wise even up until 600m I thought I was in a good spot, but with 200m to go I should’ve moved wide earlier because I couldn’t get through.
“When I come to terms with this race I think I’ll look back on this season and be happy with what I’ve achieved. It wasn’t to be today but that doesn’t reflect on the season as a whole.”
Men’s 800m final medal standings
1 – Emmanuel Wanyonyi – 1:41:86
2 - Djamel Sedjati – 1:41:90
3 – Marco Arop – 1:41:95
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Max Burgin was in and around the top three for the majority of that race but dropped off on the final straight and finished sixth. Ireland’s Cian McPhillips, meanwhile, spent much of the race at the back of the pack but managed to find the energy for a huge final 100m sprint to finish fourth, just outside the medals.
Wanyonyi wins men's 800m
Emmanuel Wanyonyi wins the men’s 800m with a championship record time of 1:41.86 after holding off the other runners in a thrilling sprint down the final stretch!
As we go into the second lap, Wanyonyi leads, followed by Arop with Burgin in third place.
We’re now onto the men’s 800m final involving British runner Max Burgin and Ireland’s Cian McPhillips.
The women’s javelin results are in. Juleisy Angulo takes gold and becomes the new world champion!
1 – Angulo – 65.12m
2 – Sietina – 64.64m
3 – Mackenzie Little – 63.58m
As we head to the field for the women’s javelin final, Juleisy Angulo leads with a mark of 65.12m. Anete Sietina is currently in the silver medal position with 64.64m and Mackenzie Little sits third with 63.58m.
In the third and final decathlon 400m heat, Ayden Owens-Delerme crossed the line first in 46.88 seconds ahead of Harrison Williams. Johannes Erm finished third.
In the second decathlon 400m heat, Niklas Kaul crossed the line first with a season-best time of 48.13 followed by Heath Baldwin of the USA and Antoine Ferranti of France with a personal best of 48.64.
Thanks Luke!
Right, in the men’s decathlon we’re now onto the 400m. Karel Tilga of Estonia took the first heat. We’re onto the second…
Emillia Hawkins is here to take you through the rest of the session.
Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands produced a last-throw stunner to win the women’s world shot put gold on Saturday, denying the American Chase Jackson a third successive title.
Schilder, the 2022 bronze medallist, was down in fifth with a best of 19.51 metres but found 20.29 with her final attempt. Jackson was also below her best but responded with her own big last effort, falling just short with 20.21 but enough for silver..
Maddison-Lee Wesche of New Zealand took bronze with her personal best first-round throw of 20.06, which for most of the night looked to be enough to earn gold.
“It’s amazing. I can’t even describe the feeling,” Schilder said. “You know you’ve got it in you ... I’m really happy with myself.” (Reuters)
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“Physically and mentally this year has been exhausting,” Johnson-Thompson continues. “Getting yourself up for it year in, year out. Physically I can be putting out times I’ve never done before, but mentally it’s hard to get yourself up for the fight again, because you know how hard it is.
“Give me a month off I’ll be texting – ‘When’s training starting again?’.
Is this the last we will see of her in this kind of competition?
“I don’t know!’ she says, laughing. “You caught me at a bad moment.”
Heptathlete Johnson-Thompson speaks to the BBC after securing a bronze medal: “I actually don’t have any words. I’m just in disbelief. The season’s been so difficult … I’ve done this so many times and it doesn’t get any easier.
“I think I had the least confidence coming into this. I don’t even think this is the hardest-fought medal I’ve got, but honestly, it really does mean the world to me.
“I’ve been through it at the stadium … the minute I stepped into the stadium I started sobbing … it holds so much emotion [from Olympic disappointment in 2021]. To finish here and leave with a medal, I can’t put it into words, it’s a full-circle moment I’ve just been through.
“Going back to 2021, the Covid games, my mum was so far away, just texting. To know she’s just in the stadium, and I can share that moment with her and celebrate on the victory lap, it just creates memories that are going to last a lifetime. This is exactly why I do it, to have moments like that with my mum.”
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Chebet wins gold in the women's 5,000m
1) Chebet (Ken) 14min 54.36sec
2) Kipyegon (Ken) 14min 55.07sec
3) Battocletti (Ita) 14.55.42sec
Hannah Nuttall (GB) is eighth.
Hannah Nuttall “is having an absolute blinder” … and finishes eighth!
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Houlihan and Andrews of the USA are setting the pace after 3,000m of the women’s 5,000m final.
Now Agnes Jebet Ngetich (Kenya) moves second.
The commentator offers of another Kenyan: “I can’t see Faith Kipyegon being beaten from here.”
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Katarina Johnson-Thompson clinched a shared bronze medal at the World Championships after finishing the heptathlon level with the American Taliyah Brooks.
The defending world champion from Liverpool needed to beat Brooks in the 800m, the final event, by about six seconds to claim bronze, and crossed the finish second in 2min 07.38sec.
Brooks finished ninth in 2min 13.17sec, meaning they were level in the overall scoring with 6581pts each. They faced a nervy wait on the track until it was determined the medal would be shared.
Anna Hall of the USA was crowned champion with 6888pts and there was a historic silver for Ireland’s Kate O’Connor, who set a national record of 6714pts. It was Ireland’s first outdoor senior multi-event medal, and the country’s first World Championship medal in 12 years. (PA Media)
The women’s 5,000m final is up next.
“What a phenomenal performance,” the BBC pundit Jessica Ennis-Hill says of Anna Hall’s dominant overall win. “Coming to the champs, where we’ve seen her crumble before, whether it be through injury or things not going her way – she came here, she delivered and she took the title.”
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I’m sure we’ll have some reaction from Johnson-Thompson coming up ...
That was a gritty run on the final straight in the 800m to distance Brooks just enough for a medal.
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Heptathlon bronze for Johnson-Thompson!
Amazing. Johnson-Thompson and Taliyah Brooks finish on equal points, 6581, after a 5.9sec win over her closest rival for the GB athlete in the 800m.
Johnson-Thompson doesn’t know is she’s won a medal or not. But she has!
1) Hall (USA) 6888pts
2) O’Connor (Ire) 6714pts
3) Brooks (USA) 6581pts
4) Johnson-Thompson (GB & NI) 6581pts
5) Sprengel (Ger) 6435pts
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Heptathlon silver for Ireland's Kate O'Connor
A wonderful performance in the women’s heptathlon from the Irish athlete, who particularly excelled in the javelin earlier today. Anna Hall wins gold but we knew that – a dominant display.
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Second for Johnson-Thompson in the 800m … it’s very close between her and Brooks for the bronze.
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O’Connor has some blue tape on her right knee. She is in silver medal position.
A gold medal for Anna Hall of the USA looks guaranteed.
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Away they go!
“RTÉ reporting Kate O’Connor has a knee injury,” emails Conor. “Analysts questioning if she can get around twice.”
A reminder that Katarina Johnson-Thompson needs a thumping performance in the 800m to win a medal in the women’s heptathlon.
We are just a couple of minutes away from the concluding event.
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Women’s 4x100m heats:
Heat 1
Jamaica 41.80sec
Spain 42.53sec
France 42.71sec
Netherlands 43.62sec
Chile 44.07sec
Heat 2
USA 41.60sec
Germany 41.86sec
GB & NI 41.88sec
Canada 42.38sec
Poland 42.83sec
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USA, GB and NI, Germany the top three in the second heat of the women’s 4x100m.
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Up next, Heat 2 in the women’s 4x100m. More fun and games await. The top three qualify automatically but you already knew that, being an athletics expert just like me.
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“I want to put my hand up and say sorry to the boys,” Eugene Amo-Dadzie of GB and NI tells the BBC, after the botched changeover in the heat of the men’s 4x100m that cost them a place in the final. “We were looking good, feeling good, and definitely had an opportunity to do something here.
“Sport can be cruel like that sometimes. My main disappointment is not being able to do my job … Obviously in the team aspect it has a knock-on effect. If you mess up in an individual that’s on you, you mess up in a relay situation, it impacts the team. I’m apologising to the coaches and my boys here …
“I can put my hand up and say, you know what? I didn’t do my job well enough today. It’s really frustrating. Particularly because I was here for the relay and I was feeling really good …
“I’m going to shoulder that. It’s tough, it hurts. I don’t really know how to feel right now. Those are my thoughts.”
Seriously impressive honesty from Amo-Dadzie.
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Whoops. Great Britain & NI fail to finish their heat after another howler on a changeover.
Ghana 37.79sec
Netherlands 37.95sec
Japan 38.07sec
Australia 38.21sec
GB & NI are up now in heat two of the men’s 4x100m.
Canada, USA, Germany the top three in Heat 1 of the men’s 4x100m.
Jamaica are out having messed up a changeover!
Canada 37.85sec
USA 37.98sec
Germany 38.12sec
France 38.34sec
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Right, it’s business time now. Heat 1 of the men’s 4x100m.
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“I’ll be totally honest,” Greg Rutherford says on the BBC, of the British women’s last place in their 4x400m heat.
“I’m all for building everybody up and giving them a fair chance … That’s not good enough. We have to put that into perspective … a lot of money is put into that programme … you can’t be coming last in your heat at a world championships … genuinely, I don’t think it’s good enough.”
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Australia and Brazil are disqualified from the men’s 4x400m for illegal changeovers.
Heat 2 of the women’s 4x400m: USA, Belgium, Netherlands is the top three with France also through to the final in fourth place.
USA 3min 22.53sec
Belgium 3min 23.96sec
Netherlands 3min 24.03sec
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“Huge disappointment,” Victoria Ohuruogu tells the BBC after the Great Britain team finish last in their women’s 4x400m heat. “We gave everything we had. I don’t want to make excuses but it’s been a long championships … overall it’s been a good championships for GB.”
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Women’s heptathlon – javelin results, top five.
O’Connor (Ire) 53.06m (PB)
Sprengel (Ger) 51.66m (PB)
Oosterwegel (Ned) 50.19m
Hall (USA) 48.13m
Lazraq-Khlass (Fra) 47.97
Time for Heat 1 in the Women’s 4x400m.
I was chatting to the Irish contingent in the press box here and suggested we could be about to witness the greatest day in Irish track and field history, if O’Connor and McPhillips win medals. But that is not the case.
At the 1932 Olympics, Pat O’Callaghan in the men’s hammer throw, and Bob Tisdall in the men’s 400m hurdles both won gold on the same day.
The calculation (courtesy of the BBC) is that Johnson-Thompson needs to beat Ireland’s O’Connor by six seconds in the 800m to win a medal.
“I brought it home strong,” says Charles Dobson after the men’s qualification for the 4x400m final. “Happy with that. We have such good depth in the team.”
It’s a time of 2min 57.68sec for Botswana to win Heat 2 of the men’s 4x400. Belgium second, Australia third. GB finish a strong fourth, one hundredth of a second slower, which will be enough to qualify.
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Here come Great Britain in Heat 2 of the men’s 4x400m.
“KJT” places 15th in the javelin, throwing 41.91m with her third attempt. As it stands she is fourth overall.
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South Africa, Qatar, Netherlands is the top three in Heat 1 of the men’s 4x400m.
USA are out! Demarius Smith and Bryce Deadmon appeared to muck up their changeover in a big way, and they could not recover.
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The javelin in the women’s heptathlon is ongoing, and I’ll have an update soon.
Team USA nearly drop the baton in the men’s 4x400!
Here’s the men’s 4x400 relay (Heat 1).
“Having succeeded, unlike Bob and Terry, in avoiding the score, I watched back the heptathlon on the iPlayer yesterday, which also allows skipping the studio punditry and those interviews on VT wherein athletes tell us they’ll be happy to medal with a PB,” emails Gary Naylor.
“Seeing a multi-disciplinary event play out in real time is such a privilege. You get to know the personalities, you see the competition and the camaraderie between them and you appreciate just how hard it is to go from high jump to shot-put with barely time to change shoes. It’s a shame it so often gets lost between track races.”
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A statement from British Athletics, via the magic of social media:
“Unfortunately Abi Pawlett has withdrawn from the heptathlon as she is still suffering the after-effects of yesterday’s fall in the hurdles. We wish Abi a speedy recovery.”
The high jump in the men’s decathlon has also begun.
Meanwhile the athletes for the upcoming relays are pictured getting off the transfer buses from the much-maligned warm-up area.
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Via Reuters, some quotes from Nafi Thiam of Belgium, who withdrew from the women’s heptathlon before this session.
“I’ve struggled with this heptathlon from the start. I tried to fight it and persevere, but it clearly didn’t work,” Thiam told Het Nieuwsblad. “I started this morning thinking I would fight until the end and not leave empty-handed because I’ve worked hard this year ...
“I knew I could do something good here and fight for my place in the standings but that didn’t happen. So I’m disappointed, yes. This championship is a real black cloud.”
She had accused the Belgian athletics body of excluding her from their pre-championships camp in a row over image rights. The federation denied that. Thiam was asked whether the row had impacted her performances in Tokyo.
“It’s hard to quantify that,” she said. “Regardless of the reasons why I feel the way I do, the reality remains that I feel the way I do. So that doesn’t make a difference.”
Kate O’Connor of Ireland threw a PB of 53.06m at her first attempt in the javelin. Her second throw was over 50m too. Incredible performance.
It’s a throw of 40.51m for Johnson-Thompson at the second attempt.
She threw 45.49m at the Olympics last year. She will need a big performance in the closing 800m to get a medal.
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Johnson-Thompson’s first effort places her fifth at the moment. Here comes No 2.
Hall, O’Connor, Brooks is the top three in the javelin in the women’s heptathlon right now.
Johnson-Thompson has thrown 38.82m with her first of three attempts in the javelin. She’s been pushed out of the medal positions for now.
Kate O’Connor of Ireland has mustered a phenomenal personal best of 53.06m.
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Amy Hunt has a chat with the BBC after collecting her 200m medal.
“I think I went to sleep at 5.30am. The sun was up. It was a long night in anti-doping as well, so it wasn’t entirely all glamourous. There wasn’t many celebrations going on. It still definitely hasn’t sunk in. But this [the medal] is helping a lot.
“I said, if these girls are letting me come ninth in the 100m, something pretty special is coming in the 200. The way I was finishing the races, I was obviously coming through … A lot of the lessons the 100 taught me paid dividends in the 200.
“My coach loves numbers. It’s maths, physics, science … we’re using all the data we can, all the technology we can, to keep track of everything. We have all the numbers down. He knows what I’m about to run. He did predict I was going to do a 22.00 the other day, so to him it wasn’t a surprise. It gives me so much confidence … I knew if I could be with them off the turn, then it’s game over.
“Coming in as a really hot junior, making a big noise, making a big splash … it was then nice to take a back seat almost [studying for her degree and having injuries] and have that pressure taken off me … I was able to make a senior debut without the kind of weight and expectation that I probably might have had. It also taught me a lot, it taught me my strength.
“It’s taught me that I am stronger than I could possibly imagine and the team I have around me are world-beaters as well.”
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The defending champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson is third with two heptathlon events remaining.
The 2024 Olympic silver medallist has 4874pts before the javelin throw and 800m on Saturday in a field led by American pair Anna Hall, on 5041 points, and Taliyah Brooks, with 4930.
Johnson-Thompson has a 50-point lead over fourth-placed Kate O’Connor of Ireland after the morning session’s long jump, where the Englishwoman was third-best with a 6.42m effort behind Brooks and Great Britain’s Jade O’Dowda.
Brooks reached a personal-best 6.79m, 30cm more than O’Dowda, who currently sits sixth after the Netherlands’ Sofie Dokter. Abigail Pawlett, Great Britain’s third entrant, is 15th.
According to reports in Belgium Nafi Thiam, who beat Johnson-Thompson to Olympic gold in Paris last summer, has withdrawn. She was placed eighth.
Thiam’s pre-championship build-up was marred by a row with her federation.
She told Belgian newspaper DH Les Sports+: “It was difficult from the beginning. I tried to fight, to go through these difficulties, but clearly it does not follow. I have trouble explaining it myself. Clearly my body is not happy. I don’t want to do anything stupid, because I think that now, finishing would be for the principle.”
Great Britain secured their second medal of the 2025 championships on Friday, when Amy Hunt stormed to 200m silver, adding to Jake Wightman’s second-place finish in the men’s 1500m final.
They could win medals in up to three events on the penultimate evening of the World Championships.
Hannah Nuttall will start the women’s 5000m final at 1.29pm UK time before Max Burgin goes for men’s 800m gold in his final, scheduled for 2.22pm. (PA Media)
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Hats off to the digital content team for producing such a clear and user friendly timetable on the official website, by the way.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson of Great Britain will be up shortly for the javelin throw in the Women’s Heptathlon (from 11am)
The GB men will compete in Heat 2 of the men’s 4x400 relay at 11.46am, then the women will take the stage in Heat 1, scheduled for 12pm.
At 12.25pm it’s the men’s 4x100 (Heat 1) for GB, then it’s Heat 2 for the women’s team at 12.54pm.
The Women’s 800m Heptathlon is scheduled for 1.11pm, with Johnson-Thompson aiming for a medal, and the Women’s 5000m is locked in for 1.29pm UK time, with Hannah Nuttall on the start line.
Then the 23-year-old Halifax-born Max Burgin will go for glory in the men’s 800m: which is booked in for 2.22pm UK time. Cian McPhillips of Ireland qualified quickest for that race, so plenty to get excited about.
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World Athletics has underscored its commitment to the “athlete experience” after some competitors at the world championships in Tokyo – including Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson – criticised warm-up logistics.
Yoyogi Park, where the main warm-up facility is located, is a two-and-half-kilometre drive from Japan National Stadium, a bus journey the PA news agency understands takes about 15 minutes.
The final call for competitors to board the bus is reportedly scheduled for 50 minutes to an hour before the start of each event. Athletes can also use an indoor straight at the stadium, including on days when they have more than one race in a session.
A World Athletics statement read: “The athlete experience is of utmost importance for World Athletics and the Local Organising Committee at these World Athletics Championships, and we have put a lot of consideration into their preparations within the constraints of locations and venues.
“This type of configuration is not unique – as we have seen from previous Olympic Games and other major athletics championships.
“For Tokyo 25, we ensured that team leaders were fully briefed at a site visit in March in order for teams to have ample time to prepare – and the rules regarding warm up, call room, and transport apply to every team and every athlete without exception.
“The brilliant performances we have seen so far from the athletes speak for themselves.”
On Friday, after qualifying for Sunday’s 800m final, Hodgkinson said: “I think the whole warm-up situation, you’re warming up for almost two hours. It can be quite draining, so maybe we will have to look at doing something better come Sunday.
“Other than that I’m happy to be in my fifth world final in a row. That’s an achievement in itself. I’m really happy to do that and be in the picture for another medal, hopefully.”
Only athletes are allowed to board the bus for the stadium, turning it into a kind of call room on wheels. Last Saturday, speaking after their 1500m heats, American middle-distance runner Nikki Hiltz told Citius Mag: “It’s a solid 10-minute bus ride of just sitting. It’s just weird. It’s definitely not usual, but we’re all in the same boat.”
The Jamaica coach Stephen Francis was more critical. In an interview with Jamaica’s TVJ on Saturday, Francis described what he felt were a number of logistical issues, including the “distance from the stadium to the warm-up track”.
He added: “Those areas of a meet are not befitting the top meet of the year for World Athletics.”
According to the website of the manufacturer Mondo, the warm-up track for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (located next to the stadium) was dismantled and reinstalled at Aichi University in 2022. (PA Media)
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The official schedule informs us that Day 8 (Evening Session) starts in 40mins.
So we’ve got time to recap Hunt’s sensational silver from yesterday.
Read Sean Ingle’s report here:
Amy Hunt is just collecting her silver medal. She is looking a little tired, which is not surprising given she got to bed at 5am this morning, and will not be running in the heats of the women’s 4x100m relay later today.
Thiam withdraws from heptathlon
Nafi Thiam – one of the defending champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s key rivals – withdrew on Saturday withdrew from the heptathlon on Saturday after an underwhelming long jump left Belgium’s triple Olympic champion with little chance of a medal.
The 31-year-old, who won world titles in 2017 and 2022, failed to get over the six-metre mark with her two legal jumps on Saturday morning to stand in eighth place in the overall standings, 377 points behind the competition-leader Anna Hall.
Thiam, who last lost in competition at the 2019 worlds, had been withdrawn by her coach before the javelin and 800m in the evening session. “I’ve struggled with this heptathlon from the start. I tried to fight it and persevere, but it clearly didn’t work,” a tearful Thiam told Het Nieuwsblad after Saturday morning’s session. “I started this morning thinking I would fight until the end and not leave empty-handed because I’ve worked hard this year ... “I knew I could do something good here and fight for my place in the standings but that didn’t happen. So I’m disappointed, yes. This championship is a real black cloud.“
Thiam competed sparingly in 2025 and had a disrupted run up to the championships after a row with her national federation. She accused the Belgian athletics body of excluding her from their pre-championships camp in a row over image rights. The federation denied the allegation. Thiam was asked whether the row had impacted her performances in Tokyo.
“It’s hard to quantify that,” she told the newspaper. “Regardless of the reasons why I feel the way I do, the reality remains that I feel the way I do. So that doesn’t make a difference.” (Reuters)
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Preamble
Hello and welcome to the penultimate day of action in Tokyo. Breaking news in the heptathlon: Belgium’s title contender Nafi Thiam has pulled out after underperforming in the long jump.
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