Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s hopes of Olympic gold are well and truly alive at the end day one of what looks set to be a heptathlon duel for the ages.
The Brit produced a huge personal best of 14.44m in the shot put, as well as her best high jump performance in five years, to lead on 4055 points after four events, 48 clear of defending champion and long-time rival Nafi Thiam.
Johnson-Thompson put years of injury woe behind her to regain her world title in Budapest last year, but is still searching for a first ever Olympic medal at what is her fourth Games. Having made her debut at London 2012 as a teenager alongside Jessica Ennis-Hill, she was well-fancied to make the podium in Rio four years later, but could only finish sixth, before pulling her calf during the 200m in Tokyo and being forced out of the competition.
The 31-year-old’s build-up to Paris has also been far from smooth. She pulled out of the European Championships in Rome after three events because of injury and has not completed a full heptathlon in 2024 as she continues to manage an Achilles issue.
If her fitness remained a question-mark at the start of Thursday, though, by nightfall the script had flipped: it appears the world champion might just be in some of the best shape of her life.
Johnson-Thompson began the morning running a season’s best time of 13.40seconds in the 100m hurdles - a tenth-of-a-second quicker than she had opened when winning world gold in Budapest 12 months ago - before clearing 1.92m in the high jump for the first time since her maiden World Championship success, at Doha 2019.
The evening session began with what is traditionally one of the Liverpudlian’s weakest events, the shot put, and at one stage she looked set to surrender a swing of well over 100 points to Thiam, after the Belgian - a much stronger thrower - equalled her personal best of 15.54m.
Johnson-Thompson, by contrast, had managed only 13.38m across the first two rounds and never in her life thrown beyond the 14-metre line. With her third and final attempt, though, she launched past it and then some, her mark of 14.44m adding more than half-a-metre to her lifetime best.
That meant Thiam carrying a lead of 50 points into the final event of the day, the 200m. However, Johnson-Thompson’s 23.44 was a second quicker than her rivals to effectively flip that margin, with the long jump, javelin and 800m to come.
