Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s hopes of retaining her world title look over halfway through the heptathlon competition.
The Liverpudlian lies sixth after four of the seven events - 273 points behind two-time Olympic champion and arch rival Nafi Thiam.
She had come to Eugene refusing to give an inch despite 18 months of serious injury and two changes of coach. She acknowledged a ruptured Achilles on her takeoff leg was a game changer and she would have to find a new way to build a score.
But at Hayward Field the damage to her aura was evident, reducing her speed and diminishing her spring.
“I got back into really hard training in the last six weeks but unfortunately I haven't come out of the other side in the place I wanted to be,” she said.
“I'm still here, I'm still fighting and this is part of what I'm trying to do at this championships, be here, fight and be competitive.”
Johnson-Thompson pushed herself all the way, notching season’s best scores in her first two events, the 100m hurdles and high jump.
But a 13.55secs time and 1.83m clearance were way down on the 13.09sec and 1.95m marks registered en route to her World gold in Doha three years ago.
“It's not nice, it's not a place where I want to be at a Championships, especially as I know I can do so much better historically and I think I could have done better today with a few tweaks,” she added.
Johnson-Thompson ended the day injury-free and having faced down the demons of the 200m bend where her body broke down at the Olympics last summer.
“Yeah, lining up on the bend and being in a tight lane on lane two and pushing off on the right leg, you're worried the pictures from Tokyo will repeat,” she said.
“But that's a mental process I had to get through. It's hard and I'm proud of just being here.”
Johnson-Thompson registered a 12.92m shot put and finished the day with a 23.62secs 200m.
With the long jump, javelin and 800m still to come she won’t give up hope of bridging the 193-point gap between her and Anna Hall in the bronze medal position.
But barring a miracle her golden reign is over.
