Dress rehearsals are rarely as beautiful – or important – as the one being staged in Rome over the next six days. For most of the continent’s biggest track and field stars are in the Eternal City, hunting not only a European Athletics Championships gold medal, but hoping to lay down a significant marker before next month’s Paris Olympics.
And when it comes to gladiatorial showdowns, they don’t come much bigger than the one that kicks off Friday’s action, as Britain’s double world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson faces off against Belgium’s double Olympic champion Nafi Thiam for the first time since 2022.
