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Katarina Johnson-Thompson had compared her first-day advantage in the Olympic women’s heptathlon to leading a 100 metres race at half distance and, as Noah Lyles would confirm, fine margins can make a life-changing difference in the last metres of a race.
And after what was still one of the best all-round performances of Johnson-Thompson’s career, two days of competition ultimately came down to the final 800m when, despite a personal best, she could not quite overhaul the advantage that Nafi Thiam had built-up on Friday morning.
The Belgian is now the first woman to win three consecutive Olympic heptathlon titles and, while Johnson-Thompson exceeded most expectations in pushing her so close, she had also glimpsed victory herself.
A disappointing long jump was the only slight blemish on an otherwise flawless sequence of personal and season bests that combined to complete her medal set across the major athletics championships.
After the journey Johnson-Thompson has been on – a ruptured Achilles tendon going into the 2021 Olympics and then a torn calf during the Games itself – it has been a comeback to savour even if the eventual 36-point deficit joins a now lengthy list of Team GB silvers that were agonisingly close to gold.
The decisive sequence had arrived in the first hour of Friday morning.
Johnson-Thompson had opened up with a foul in the long jump and, with the blustering winds requiring numerous readjustments, she instantly looked on the back foot. Three attempts is not much to get it right and she understandably prioritised safety on the second with a leap of 6.04m. That at least ensured a mark on the board but it was behind Thiam’s 6.41m and well short of the territory between 6.50m and 6.90m that has generally been Johnson-Thompson’s championship-winning standard.
She had, though, produced a series of wonderful ‘clutch’ performances under pressure on the first day of the heptathlon to establish her lead. The high jump had been the best example when, with Thiam clearing heights all the way up to 1.92m at the first attempt, Johnson-Thompson overcame misses at 1.86m, 1.89m and then twice at 1.92m before somehow matching her younger opponent.
There was then a similar story in the shot-put when Johnson-Thompson produced a 14.44m personal best with her very last throw.
Needing something similar under the most extreme pressure, Johnson-Thompson would upgrade to 6.40m on her third leap of the long jump. It was now only a centimetre behind Thiam but the crucial point was that this was one of her supposedly superior events. A large expected difference in the javelin duly did then materialise – despite Johnson-Thompson’s season’s best throw of 45.49m – and the monumental task of beating Thiam by fully eight seconds over the remaining two laps of the Stade de France was left.
Johnson-Thompson’s personal best was just over six seconds faster at 2min 5.63sec but, with the Belgian knowing exactly what she had to do, distancing her by the required 50m was always a long shot.
Anna Hall, the best 800m runner in the field, soon hit the front, immediately followed by Johnson-Thompson in hot pursuit. She had started inside Thiam and had gone past her by the time they broke out of their lanes. Johnson-Thompson has improved hugely her 800m running thanks to brutal Saturday morning sessions overseen by her coach Aston Moore and her lead over Thiam would incrementally grow step by step.
Thiam is an inferior runner to Johnson-Thompson at all distances and she was clearly fighting with every sinew of her body to stay in touch.
“My game plan was to try to run 2min 02sec but the way the heptathlon goes, you never know what to expect or how the races will pan out,” said Johnson-Thompson. She had certainly set a bold pace and, chasing down Hall, she finally crossed the line in 2min 4.90sec. It was almost a second faster than she has ever run but, with that hat-trick of golds at stake, Thiam also delivered the best performance of her life and finished in 2min 10.62sec.
Johnson-Thompson’s face suggested that she instantly knew it was not enough but, laid flat out in exhaustion on the track, it was a good 45 seconds before Thiam sat up and confirmation of the times appeared on the stadium screen.
Johnson-Thompson had finished with some 6844 points – a tally that surpassed her world title win last year – and which she has only previously bettered when she won the first of her world titles in 2019. Her broad smile was well justified even if, against Thiam, it was still just not quite enough.
“We will never see another heptathlete like this – she is sensational,” said Denise Lewis, Britain’s Olympic heptathlon champion in 2000, of the champion.
And, while Johnson-Thompson had just missed the chance to join Lewis, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Daley Thompson and Mary Peters among Britain’s legendary multi-event Olympic champions, it was hard not to think back to the contrast with Tokyo.
Trackside officials had enquired then whether she needed to leave the competition in a wheelchair. “I just thought I’d fade into the background and be one of those athletes who’s there to make up the numbers and that’s the last thing I wanted,” Johnson-Thompson later said. Nothing would prove to be further from the truth.
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Katarina Johnson-Thompson wins silver: As it happened…
09:08 PM BST
Tomorrow’s action
It’s the penultimate day of athletics action in the Stade de France tomorrow, Sunday morning’s women’s marathon rounding off the action after a dense Saturday evening.
The men’s marathon kicks off the action at 7am, before men’s high jump, 800m, 5000m, and 4x400m finals in the late afternoon/evening, the women’s athletics closing out with finals for the javelin, 110m hurdles, 1500m, and 4x400m.
There are a few British medal hopes. Max Burgin has an outside shot in the men’s 800m, as does George Mills in the 5000m after he was reinstated following a fall and consequent pushing match in the heats, whilst Laura Muir is a better albeit unlikely medal chance in the 1500m.
The evening concludes with the two 4x400m races. In the women’s, GB’s times are very competitive, but the field is very tightly bound so here is no reasonable prediction to make there, whilst the men, anchored by Matt Hudson-Smith, are definite medal hopes. Fingers crossed!
08:51 PM BST
Rai Benjamin wins gold for the USA
It’s a repeat of the Tokyo podium, but Warholm is shown a clean pair of heels by pre-race favourite Rai Benjamin who sprints clear over the last three hurdles!
There’s a definitive ‘big three’ in the 400m hurdles, and world record holder Karsten Warholm is over in second, whilst Brazil’s Alison dos Santos retains his Tokyo bronze, well clear of Clement Ducos in fourth.
08:47 PM BST
400m hurdles
And we’re onto the last event of the evening. Frenchman Clement Ducos in five, reigning Olympic champion Karsten Warholm in his favoured seven
08:46 PM BST
Hear from KJT
08:45 PM BST
Edwards’ record safe as Diaz Fortun wins triple jump gold
It’s gold for Jordan Diaz Fortun and Spain, but we all know the important bit is that Great Britain’s only remaining athletics world record is safe for the time being.
The final is excruciatingly close, two cm in it which you love to see.
Here’s the podium:
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Jordan Diaz Fortun, Spain – 17.86m
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Pedro Pichardo, Portugal – 17.84m
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Andy Diaz Hernandez, Italy – 17.64m
08:35 PM BST
Kenya’s Chebet wins 10,000m
Running around three minutes behind her world record of 28 minutes 54 seconds, Beatrice Chebet had plenty in the tank to sprint to the finish, leaving behind six other women who were still in the pack on the back straight.
She was pushed all the way by Italy’s Nadia Battocletti who finished in second, the Netherlands’ Siffan Hassan a bit further back in third, meaning both Ethiopians miss out on the podium.
McColgan comes in at 31.20, Keith the last to finish with two women unable to finish.
08:28 PM BST
Edwards’ record safe for now
Jonathan Edwards’ 29-year triple jump record is still intact for now, and I daresay it will remain safe. Jordan Diaz Fortun leads the competition with a 17.86, and whilst he’s playing it safe with the foul line he’s quite far away from Edwards’ historic 18.29m.
08:26 PM BST
McColgan dropped
The pack has picked up the pace now, chopping around five seconds off the average lap time meaning they’re now running just under three minutes per kilometre, which is outrageous. McColgan can’t keep up, Keith has been lapped, Britain are way off medal contention. No major attacking moves made by any individual yet though, so prepare for a frantic finish.
08:21 PM BST
KJT come a long way
She’s one of the poster-girls of modern British Olympics squads, and transitioned into her role as a senior squad member seamlessly. Given she has shared generations with one of Britain’s greatest in Jessica Ennis-Hill, and one of sport’s greatest in Naffi Thiam, her wrap-sheet of two World Championships, two Commonwealth golds, an indoor world championship and an Olympic silver is extremely impressive.
08:13 PM BST
10,000m under-way
Britain’s Megan Keith and Eilish McColgan, the latter the daughter of British running great Liz, are running but it’s doubtful they’ll trouble the podium – five of the fastest seven 10km runners in history are in this field, including world record holder Beatrice Chebet of Kenya.
They won’t be troubling that record, from May this year in which four of those top seven times were run, but Keih has been dropped from the pack nonetheless.
08:06 PM BST
Just how clsoe was KJT?
She needed to be about 20m further ahead than she ended up from Naffi Thiam, unfortunately that was never going to happen, Thiam is imperious and has solidified herself as an all-time athletic great.
08:03 PM BST
4x100m silver confirmed
Despite their changeovers proving difficult, their silver will remain intact! Just a shame it’s not the gold it very probably could’ve been.
08:00 PM BST
Hear from women’s 4x100m silver medallists
No update on the protested result as of yet. Fingers crossed no news is good news.
07:56 PM BST
Germany’s Yemisi Ogunleye wins shot put gold
She specialisied in the shot put after injuries ended her heptathlon career, so it’s remarkable that sh’es now taken gold. Here’s the podium, not featuring the USA’s Raven Saunders…
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Yemisi Ogunleye, Germany – 20.00
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Maddison-Lee Wesche, New Zealand – 19.86
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Jiayuan Song, China – 19.32
07:52 PM BST
GB’s O’Dowda finishes 10th
Given KJT’s age of 31, it may be up to Jade O’Dowda to pick up the GB heptathlon mantle after a golden period of Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katarina Johnson-Thompson. A 10th placed finish is a good start for the 24-year-old, especially considering Ennis-Hill was injured in 2008 and KJT placed 13th in her first Games in London. Plenty of promise.
07:46 PM BST
KJT PB not enough
When you’re racing a now triple-gold medallist in a multi-faceted event, it takes something extremely special, superhuman in fact, and she couldn’t quite produce it. A personal best from KJT gives her a 5.72 second margin to Thiam, which is roughly 2.5 seconds too little.
It means she finishes 36 points behind Thiam in the combined standings for a very impressive silver, that, especially given the generational talent ahead of her, will put some serious Olympic demons to bed for the Briton. Her final total is 6844, the main differential being the 166 points, or 8.55m, that separated them in the javelin.
07:38 PM BST
KJT takes silver
Brilliant effort but it was always going to be too much. I make it about six seconds between them as KJT finishes second. Official results to come.
07:36 PM BST
400m to go
As expected, Anna Hall leads out and opens a big lead. KJT in second, a gap opening to Thiam, but it’s slim, no more than a second.
07:35 PM BST
Thiam. Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
We’re under-way. It all comes down to this.
07:32 PM BST
KJT gold medal race imminent
A reminder that she trails double Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam by 121 points – primarily due to Thiam’s javelin dominance – coming into this race, the climax of the women’s heptathlon. That means she’ll need to beat Thiam by around eight seconds – KJT’s personal best is about six seconds faster so the stars will need to align.
Johnson-Thompson’s cushion to the USA’s Anna Hall in second is around 109 points, and to fourth is 114, so barring anything disastrous it’s safe to presume she’ll win a maiden Olympic medal considering she’s an 800m specialist.
She shares a heat with Anna Hall, whose 800m time is fractionally quicker than KJT’s, so she could help pace make for her, but Thiam is also in the heat so she might benefit from this too. Her 800m PB was run this season.
07:25 PM BST
Jonathan Edwards’ record under threat
There has been a sporting great opening each session of the athletics and it is Jonathan Edwards this evening. He won triple jump gold of course in 2000 but a sub-plot is that his world record set in 1995 has been coming under increasing threat this summer.
That said, the heavens have just opened on top of the Stade de France and are unlikely to provide optimum conditions.
A reminder that Edwards’ record is the only British athletics world best left – Portugal’s Pedro Pichardo and Spain’s Jordan Diaz Fortun are showing particular interest in it.
07:17 PM BST
GB silver protested
Hearing that there is a protest against the Team GB women’s 4x100m relay team. The silver medals are not confirmed yet.
07:16 PM BST
How Team GB’s baton exchanges cost them…
Changeover two:
Changeover three:
07:10 PM BST
Fifth for Anning
Potentially fourth as she finishes fast but in truth Amber Anning was out of it from the start, as the Dominican Republic’s Marileidy Paulino wins with an Olympic Record.
It’s a great effort for Anning as she runs a national record, but with Paulino running such a quick race the podium was always out of reach, she won’t add to her 4x400m mixed relay bronze.
Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser gets silver, Poland’s Natalia Kczmarek bronze.
07:05 PM BST
Women’s 400m final
Britain’s Amber Anning fully in with a medal chance here…
07:05 PM BST
Canada fully deserving
That’s a thoroughly deserved gold for the Canadian team, whose lineup is exactly the same as the one that inherited GB’s silver in Tokyo.
The US relay circus continues as they come in seventh. It’s the 12th time since 1995 that they have made a high profile mistake in the relay in the Olympics and World Championships. The mistake this time was between two highly pedigreed sprinters, Chris Coleman, who has three world championship gold medals, saw 200m silver medallist Kenneth Bednarek spring out of his starting position far, far too soon. He was forced to slow down to stay within legal limits, causing Coleman to crash in, and then past him before he was able to accelerate.
The following changeovers were fine but it didn’t seem as though Kyree King and Fred Kerley were going all out, already resigned to their failure.
GB’s changes were far from clean, especially between Hinchliffe and Mitchell-Blake, so Hughes did well so recover a medal.
06:57 PM BST
Hughes proves class for bronze
Absolute chaos despite more favourable conditions than the women’s event, Italy and China going into the anchor leg with a significant lead but all being drawn in by the eventual podium. South Africa’s Akani Simbine decimated GB in the anchor leg in the heats, so it was a tough ask for Hughes to overtake him, but Andre de Grasse, the Tokyo 200m champion, was able to stay clear.
06:51 PM BST
GB third, Canada win, US miss out
Drama!!! US’ first change was awful, their 4x100m men’s drought continues! GB’s not the smoothest but Hughes paces through for bronze! Andre de Grasse gets a second Olympic gold, South Africa second!!
06:50 PM BST
“Widespread confusion”
Widespread confusion at the end of the women’s 4x100m when Great Britain flashed up on the screen in first place but with the US flag. Sha’carri Richardson was completely dumbfounded by the mix-up before the official results came through and the GB girls got bumped down to a silver medal.
Did that changeover between Amy Hunt and Daryl Neita cost them gold? It didn’t look as clean as it could have been but it’s very drizzly out there and Neita took a few more milliseconds in the greasy conditions to make sure the baton wasn’t dropped.
06:48 PM BST
Men’s 4x100m now
No time to catch your breath, GB’s 4x100m men race now, squad as follows:
Jeremiah Azu, Louie Hinchliffe, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, Zharnel Hughes.
Hughes has put some hamstring issues that ruled him out the men’s 200m to compete, as we hear news the women’s squad did incur a warning during the final, but nothing worse as of yet. Richard Kilty is the man who makes way, he, Hughes, and Mitchell-Blake are the three who ahd their Tokyo medals strip for CJ Ujah’s doping violation.
06:43 PM BST
“Concern over whether they are legal”
Better changeovers and that certainly could have been gold. Huge time has gone into perfecting them – Amy Hunt and Daryll Neita are training partners in Italy – and some concern over whether they are legal.
Great first and last legs by Dina Asher-Smith and Neita, underlining a strength in depth of British women’s sprinting just now.
06:41 PM BST
Should’ve been gold
Clean changeovers and that’s a gold – enormous ‘if’ given that is the biggest component of the relay, but you have to say it because of what could’ve been, GB were comfortably in the lead after Linsiquot’s leg. They went from first to fourth and Neita dug them out of a hole.
The foursome don’t look too upset at the moment, when they see how far ahead they were that may change. Given how close they were to a potential baton infringement, they did well to hold on.
06:35 PM BST
Silver for GB
Silver for GB, but my word it could’ve been worse!! Changeovers two and three were nearly disastrous, we’ll have to see if it was legal. Britain, despite a slippy second change were miles ahead, but the third and final change was costly, GB in third as Neita took the baton, she saved them a silver though.
Both changes saw Hunt grappling for the baton so we can be thankful they kept things together. USA come from behind for gold, Germany third thanks to Neita’s surge
06:32 PM BST
Raining heavily
Far from ideal relay conditions, baton changeovers now fraught with danger. We’re just about to get under-way.
06:32 PM BST
Women’s 4x100m
It’s a vastly experienced team that will run quicker than their heats with the addition of Daryll Neita and Dina Asher-Smith, the former finished fourth in the 100m final, and Asher-Smith fourth in the 200m final. GB’s time of 41.55 in London a few weeks ago is the current world lead but the US are absolute favourites.
Here’s our squad in order:
Dina Asher-Smith, Imani Lansiquot, Amy Hunt, Daryll Neita.
Asher-Smith, Lansiquot and Neita won bronze in Tokyo, Asher-Smith and Neita bronze in Rio.
06:26 PM BST
What’s after KJT
After KJT there is a women’s 10,000m final as well as the men’s 400m hurdles final. GB’s Megan Keith and Eilish McColgan are both outside medal chances but mild weather conditions in the Stade de France will favour them, whilst GB don’t feature in the hurdles final.
06:23 PM BST
When does KJT compete tonight?
This evening’s running order is saturated with medals, eight golds on offer from all eight events.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s 800m climax to the heptathlon is scheduled for 19.25, following three races scheduled beforehand, as well as the women’s shot put and men’s triple jump, the latter of which will likely run concurrently.
The first race, scheduled for 18.30, is the women’s 4x100m, followed quickly by the men’s 4x100m. GB have medal interests in both races, a women’s squad missing Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita qualifying qualifying second fastest behind the USA as they pursue a third consecutive Olympic relay medal.
The men’s team qualified in third behind USA and South Africa, and have a vengeance having had their Tokyo silver medal stripped after CJ Ujah failed a drugs test.
Before KJT races, there’s a women’s 400m final which features GB’s Amber Anning, who at third in the world rankings is a definite medal hope.
05:36 PM BST
Recap: Johnson-Thompson faces daunting deficit
Katarina Johnson-Thompson has been left needing to beat her big rival, Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam, by around eight seconds in the 800m of the women’s heptathlon on Friday night to win Olympic gold.
Johnson-Thompson’s personal best is just over six seconds faster at 2min 5.63sec, compared to Thiam’s 2min 11.79sec.
After leading overnight, Johnson-Thompson was predictably made to pay on Friday morning in the women’s javelin – one of her relatively weak events – for falling significantly short of her best in the long jump.
Johnson-Thompson had opened up at 9.05am UK time with a no jump and, with that putting her on the back foot, she opted for safety first on the second at 6.04m before a final leap of 6.40m, which was some 0.52cm off her personal best and still significantly behind the 6.54m she jumped while winning last year’s World Championship.
Thiam actually bettered Johnson-Thompson in the long jump by a single centimetre and, while that meant the Briton stayed in front overall, the large expected difference in the javelin duly did then materialise.
Johnson-Thompson’s throw of 45.49m was a season’s best but again just below her standard in Budapest last year and probably leaves her needing the best 800m of her life when the athletes line up at 7.25pm UK time this evening and she aims to overhaul a 121 point deficit.
Thiam is going for her third straight Olympic title, while Johnson-Thompson is aiming to continue Britain’s golden multi-event history after Jessica Ennis-Hill, Denise Lewis, Daley Thompson and Mary Peters’ Olympic titles. An Olympic medal is the one remaining omission from her major championship collection after she tore her calf at the Tokyo Games following a ruptured achilles tendon in the build-up.
Great Britain’s 4x400m relay teams had earlier both qualified for the final on Saturday but only Max Burgin made it into the 800m final. Ben Pattison, a bronze medallist at the World Championship last year, got himself into a reasonable position going into the final straight but then looked unusually weary at what is usually his strongest part of the race.
Burgin still needed a personal best of 1min 43.50sec to qualify as one of the fastest losers after finishing third in his heat.
12:09 PM BST
Permutations
That gap of 121 seconds is bridgeable but only if Katarina Johnson-Thompson beats Nafi Thiam by just over eight seconds. The difference between their personal bests is 6.5sec but with gold on the line, it’s hard to see Thiam being beaten by 8sec, which equates to about 50m. But where there’s life, there’s hope …
12:06 PM BST
Heptathlon standings after six events
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Nafi Thiam (Belgium) 5924
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Katarina Johnson-Thompson (GB) 5803 (-121)
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Annik Kaelin (Switzerland) 5694 (-230)
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Noor Vidts (Belgium) 5689 (-235)
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Anna Hall (USA) 5567 (-357)
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Sofie Dokter (Netherlands) 5538 (-386)
So that means KJ-T will need to beat Thiam by 8sec in tonight’s 800m which starts at 7.15pm, though the leading group will be in the third race at approx 7.25pm.
11:51 AM BST
Thiam’s third throw is 50m plus
She now has the gold medal in her grasp. It’s 52.56 so she will lead Katarina Johnson-Thompson by 121 points going into the final event, the 800m. That means Kat would need to beat the double Olympic champion by eight seconds (or 40-50m) to climb from silver to gold.
11:43 AM BST
Thiam’s second throw is a foul
It goes tail up so she walks over the line. With her opening effort, though, she has enough in the bag now unless she falls in the 800m.
11:35 AM BST
Nafi Thiam’s first throw is a massive statement
She throws 54.04m which would give her a lead of 121 points. Yikes. She still has two more goes. That’s a cushion of 8.5sec in the 800m.
11:27 AM BST
Cindy Sember falls in the high hurdles semi-final
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico was first in 12.35 and USA’s Masai Russell second with 12.42.
“It’s very hard to take but I’m trusting God with it,” says Sember.
11:24 AM BST
Let’s say Nafi Thiam matches her season’s best
As we wait, let’s just do the maths. It’s a few years since she went as high as 59m. This year’s best is 53m . If she manages that today it would be worth 918 points which would give her a lead of 90. If that’s what happens, KJ-T would need to best her by just over six seconds in the 800m to take gold (barring a surge from third).
KJ-T’s pb at 800m is 2.05.63 from last year’s world championships.
Nafi Thiam’s pb is 2.11.79 set this year in Rome.
11:18 AM BST
Alaysha Johnson storms to victory in second semi
Recording 12.34sec in the semi-final. The Netherlands’ Nadine Visser was second with 12.43.
11:08 AM BST
Grace Stark wins first high hurdle semi-final
She won by a decent margin in 12.39. Devynne Charlton was second. Jamaica’s world champion Danielle Williams was sixth.
10:55 AM BST
Max Burgin finishes third in third 800m semi-final
Running a personal best of 1.43.50. And that’s fast enough for a place in the final as the swiftest of the third-placed finishers.
10:52 AM BST
Johnson-Thompson’s third attempt
‘I’d love to see her just run at this,’ says Steve Backley. She doesn’t but she does throw 45.49m, a season’s best.
I think that gives her 773 points for the javelin and hence a lead of 818 points before the defending champion Nafi Thiam goes in Pool B.
10:46 AM BST
GB’s Elliot Giles finished fifth in 800m semi-final
Arop of Canada and Tual of France go through in first and second. The pace of that race means that Ben Pattinson is definitely out of the final.
He says he just didn’t have it in his legs today and he knew pretty early in the race that he lacked the gas. He is obviously bitterly disappointed but vows to learn from the experience.
10:43 AM BST
KJ-T fouled on second attempt
She launched it on the wrong trajectory and as the tail flipped she walked across the line to make it a foul (even though it did land but well shy of 40m).
10:34 AM BST
Ben Pattison in trouble after 800m semi-final
He was fourth and only the top two automatically qualify. Sedjati and Masalela go through in a slow heat.
10:29 AM BST
Johnson-Thompson starts well
Her javelin lands at 44.64m which is excellent given it’s her first go and her best for the season is 44.88m. Two more throws to come.
10:27 AM BST
Kat Johnson-Thompson in javelin pool A
The 22 heptathletes are split into two pools, the weaker and stronger throwers based on personal bests. Thiam is in pool B along with Lazraq-Khlass and the two Dutchwomen, KJ-T and Noor Vidts are in pool A. Unlike the long jump in which both pools competed simultaneously on the two runways and pits, there is only room for one javelin pool at a time.
10:22 AM BST
France roared home to victory in second 4x400m semi-final
South Africa fell just at the start of the second leg when Spain cut across. NIgeria were second and Belgium third.
10:10 AM BST
GB qualify in second
Botswana win with ease after last night’s 200m champion Letslie Tebogo went off like a rocket in the first leg. USA were third after fighting back from last place after the first leg run by the 16-year-old Quincy Wilson who looked pooped.
10:06 AM BST
GB go in the men’s 4 x 400m relay first semi-final
It’s a very tough heat with Botswana, Trinidad and Tobago and USA. Only the first three qualify automatically.
10:04 AM BST
In the javelin
Every extra metre is worth 20 points and given that Thiem’s PB is almost 13m longer than KJ-T’s, this is where the Belgian’s surge will surely come. In the 800m, every second better than your rival is worth 15 points. So can KJ-T pull off a personal best in the javelin that would give her enough points to claw back a lead on the track?
09:53 AM BST
Katarina Johnson-Thompson stays in the lead
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Katarina Johnson-Thompson (GB) 5030
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Nafi Thiem (Belgium) 4985
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Noor Vidts (Belgium) 4926
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Annik Kaelin (Switzerland) 4870
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Sofie Doktor (Netherlands) 4823
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Anna Hall (USA) 4784
Top six in long jump
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Martha Araujo (Colombia) 6.61m, 1043 points
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Annik Kaelin (Switzerland) 6.59m, 1036 points
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Nafi Thiam (Belgium) 6.41m, 978 points
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Noor Vidts (Belgium) 6.40m, 975 points
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Katarina Johnson-Thompson (GB) 6.40m, 975 points
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Jade O’Dowda (GB) 6.33m, 953 points
09:48 AM BST
Same again for Anna Hall in heptathlon long jump
Another sub 6m effort after stalling in her run-up again.
09:47 AM BST
GB finish second in women’s 4x400m heat
It was a very tight race for qualification after USA blazed a trail but Lina Nielsen brought it home in a last 100m burst to see off France, who go through in third, and Belgium, who have to wait, in fourth.
09:41 AM BST
Nafi Thiem up for her third effort
And she’s much closer to the board this time and she registers 6.41m for the second time. That should be only a three point advantage for Thiem over Johnson-Thompson, reducing her lead to 45 points.
09:33 AM BST
Johnson-Thompson’s third effort
She gathers herself and shakes the stiffness from her shoulders. It’s a better one, not great but it keeps her in the fight. 6.40m, having taken off 16cm behind the board.
09:32 AM BST
Martha Araujo of Colombia takes the lead
She makes a massive 6.61m in an event that is not her forte. Taliyah Brooks also makes a mark on her third attempt, making 6.15m.
09:29 AM BST
Anna Hall stutters again on the run-up
And makes only 5.80m. She careered off to the right, too. Day two fatigue is really kicking in.
09:25 AM BST
Two foul jumps for France’s Auriana Lazraq-Khlass
She has feathers in her hair and is leading the crowd clapping at the top of the runway but twice she gets too excited and oversteps.
Nafi Thiem is up for her second jump and makes 6.41m. That’s a gut-punch for KJ-T who needs to pull something big out of the bag now.
09:21 AM BST
Johnson-Thompson’s second attempt
Not great but better than the last. She was 34cm behind the board and hence she managed only 6.04m, 1cm behind Thiem. She needs much more to giver herself a cushion for the javelin.
09:17 AM BST
Anna Hall losing grip on third place
The American makes only 5.93m after scraping the sand with a trailing hand. GB’s Jade O’Dowda leapt 6.33m, in second place for the event.
09:13 AM BST
Nafi Thiem is on the scoreboard
The reigning champion hares down the track and takes off 30cm behind the board 6.05m. There is a tailwind of 3m per second which may have been why Katarina Johnson-Thompson made such a hash of her run-up.
09:12 AM BST
Netherlands’ Sofie Doktor
Has jumped 6.26m in the other group. There are two pits and two events going on simultaneously.
09:10 AM BST
And it’s a no-jump*
She aborts after running through the board. She’s straight over to her coach, Aston Moore to try to address what went wrong.
*Actually it was measured and she scored 4.65m. She did take off but didn’t put anything into the jump and put her foot down sharpish.
09:08 AM BST
The long jump is ready to start in the heptathlon
Three attempts for each athlete. Group B goes first, comprised of the better longjumpers among the multi-eventers. KJ-T is in this group and next up.
08:45 AM BST
For all the rest of today’s Olympic action
Follow Luke Slater on marathon swimming, climbing, women’s golf and diving here.
08:40 AM BST
Preview: Four down three to go
Good morning and welcome to live coverage of day two of the heptathlon from the Paris 2024 Olympics. Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Liverpool’s double world champion, who has finished 13th and sixth at her only two completed Games campaigns, is leading Belgium’s double Olympic champion, Nafi Thiem, by 48 points after four rounds – 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m – before today’s final three events, long jump, javelin and 800m. KJ-T has better personal bests in both the long jump and 800m than Thiem and has a better record in the long jump and javelin than third-placed Anna Hall of the United States but javelin is where Thiem can rack up a huge advantage with a pb of 59.32m compared with Johnson-Thompson’s 46.14.
Today’s competition begins with the long jump at 9.05am, followed by the javelin at 10.20am. Then, after a long kip, they return to Stade de France for the 800m at 7.25pm in which Johnson-Thompson has run six seconds faster than Thiem and where she would hope to make up any ground lost in the javelin. After season’s best performances in the hurdles and high jump and a personal best in the shot put, she could not be in better shape to have a genuine claim for gold today, Thiem’s experience and resilience notwithstanding.
Also on the track this morning we have the 4x400m men’s and women’s relay heats, the men’s 800m semi-finals and the women’s high hurdles semi-finals. But all eyes will be on the heptathlon as K J-T tries to emulate Denise Lewis and Jess Ennis-Hill and perhaps gain her golden ticket into the BBC commentary box for the next Games as well as a gold medal. “The eyes of the world are on you in a slightly different way at the Olympics, but Kat just needs to block that out,” said Ennis-Hill.
“You’re still competing against the same women on a track. The eyes of the world are on you in a slightly different way at the Olympics, but Kat just needs to block that out.”
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