Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson leads the heptathlon at Paris 2024 after four events in her pursuit of a first Olympic medal.
The two-time world champion roared with delight after throwing a personal best in the shot put of 14.44m on Thursday evening, before clocking 23.44 seconds in the 200m to move back above rival Nafissatou Thiam.
Johnson-Thompson, 31, has 4,055 points – a narrow lead of 48 over Belgium’s two-time reigning Olympic champion Thiam, while American Anna Hall is a further 99 behind the Briton.
The heptathlon concludes with the long jump, javelin and 800m events.
Johnson-Thompson led the standings after making a superb start to the competition.
Producing season-best performances in the 100m hurdles and high jump, she led Thiam by just 24 points, with 33 points separating the three pre-competition gold medal favourites.
The shot put represents one of Johnson-Thompson’s weaker disciplines but she displayed her gold-medal credentials by launching the best throw of her life to ensure she would limit her losses to superior thrower Thiam.
The 29-year-old Thiam edged ahead by matching her personal best with an unmatched 15.54m.
But Johnson-Thompson, in the event which brought a heartbreaking end to her podium bid in Tokyo three years ago, finished the opening day strongly to reclaim top spot.
The reigning world champion declared her second global heptathlon triumph in Budapest last year as “the best day of my life”, having completed a remarkable turnaround in her career.
Following the maiden global success in 2019, Johnson-Thompson overcame a career-threatening Achilles rupture only to suffer injury heartbreak in the 200m at the Tokyo Olympics.
Last year, in the absence of the injured Thiam, she took world gold ahead of Hall to set herself up perfectly for the chance in Paris to at last claim an Olympic medal.
Also on Thursday, Great Britain’s two-time global medallist Laura Muir and Georgia Bell both qualified for the final of the women’s 1500m.
Drawn in the same semi-final, Bell finished second in three minutes 59.49 seconds, just behind Kenya’s two-time reigning Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon (3:58.64), with Muir comfortably through in fourth (3:59.83).
Team-mate Revee Walcott-Nolan ran a personal best time of 3:58.08 but that was not enough for her to progress.
The women’s 1500m final takes place at 19:15 BST on Friday.
