Birmingham 2022 Diary, Katarina Johnson-Thompson defends her heptathlon title...

This is Stuart Weir’s piece on the heptathlon. Katerina Johnson-Thompson did not do well at the World Champs, but did defend her title from 2018 CG with the win in Birmingham.

Heptathlon

Katarina Johnson Thompson entered 2022 as the reigning world and Commonwealth champion. She was unable to retain her world title in Oregon but did successively defend on her Commonwealth Championship – but only just.

KJT finished with 6,377 points, well short of the 6981 that she achieved in the 2019 World Championship.

She commented afterward:

“I’m so happy to get through it healthy. Hopefully, this will be a stepping stone for me like it was in 2018 and we’ll hope for better things next year.

“I’m happy with the points, but it wasn’t about that; it was about being competitive and finding the response I used to have, which I haven’t had in the last couple of heptathlons I’ve done.

“I’m really happy with the javelin, my first PB in three years. I’m not in the best shape I can be, so I didn’t expect any PBs. It was a nice surprise.

“[The Commonwealth Games in] 2018 was my first global medal outdoors, so now it’s about getting into that positive mentality, being competitive. Everything bodes well, and next year I can start afresh.”