World champion lands the Olympic medal she so badly wanted with second place, while Nafi Thiam secures her third successive gold in the women’s heptathlon
Katarina Johnson-Thompson threw everything she could at her attempt to win Olympic heptahlon gold but came up just short at the Stade de France on Friday night (August 9) as Nafi Thiam of Belgium won her third straight title.
Going into the final event of the competition – the 800m – 121 points behind Thiam, the world champion needed to run eight seconds faster than her rival to leap into top spot.
The Briton very nearly managed it, too, producing a PB of 2:04.90 that gave her a finishing total of 6844 points. However, a fading Thiam clung on to clock a time of 2:10.62 that meant she finished with 6880, taking victory by just 36 points.
Noor Vidts, Thiam’s fellow countrywoman, produced a PB total of 6707 to win bronze.
(Getty)
It might not have followed the dream script entirely, but years of Olympic heartache ended for Johnson-Thompson ended with that silver medal. After her debut at the home Games of London 2012, there was huge distappointment in Rio four years later, while her Tokyo campaign ended in injury.
Now, however, the 31-year-old from Liverpool has the Olympic medal she so badly wanted to sit alongside her two world titles.
Thiam, meanwhile, becomes only the second woman to win three Olympics in the same athletics discipline after Polish hammer thrower Anita Wlodarczyk.
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