Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s faint hopes of defending her world title are over.
Sitting sixth overnight the 29-year-old slipped to eighth in the heptathlon following the long jump and javelin at the World Championships on Monday morning in Eugene.
After an injury-hit 18 months and a late change of coach she was not expected to retain the title she won with a British record in Doha three years ago.
It was also unrealistic to expect a podium challenge and she has 5,387 points, 354 adrift of the medal places, and 658 behind leader Anouk Vetter with just the 800m left on Monday evening.
After day one Johnson-Thompson said she was in Eugene to fight as she regains top fitness and confidence but a poor long jump of 6.28m pushed her further back to seventh after collecting 937 points.
A best effort of 39.18m in the javelin saw the Commonwealth Games champion lose further ground.
Earlier, Jess Piasecki came 10th in the marathon but Charlotte Purdue and Rose Harvey failed to finish.
Piasecki said: “I am happy initially to finish 12th in the world. Obviously I was higher up but in the last 7km, the wheels probably came off a little bit. But I gave it a real good go and I quite enjoyed it.
“I was running with the Americans for a lot of the race, so they got a lot of cheers. They were chanting ‘USA USA’ at one point. I wanted them to chant ‘GB’.
“It’s my second championship marathon. I’ve only ever done five marathons, four that I’ve finished, so I’m still learning. It’s still such a new event for me. My fuelling was a lot better, but it probably still needs some work because I was seeing spots in the last 5k.
“I just had to keep moving forward in the last 5k but unfortunately a couple of girls just got me in the last little bit which meant I wasn’t top 10. I could not have given any more so what else can I ask for?”
