Katarina Johnson-Thompson in pole position in Olympic heptathlon

British athlete comes out firing to lead Nafi Thiam and Anna Hall at the end of the first day in Paris

Katarina Johnson-Thompson leads the heptathlon overnight and describes her opening day at the Paris Olympics as “the best I’ve had in a long time”.

Katarina Johnson

The world champion is in pursuit of her first Olympic title – or medal of any colour in fact – and scored 4055 on Thursday (Aug 8) to lead Nafi Thiam of Belgium (4007), Anna Hall of the United States (3956) and Noor Vidts of Belgium (3951).

Thiam is going for her third consecutive Olympic title whereas Hall is the 2022 world champion.

Johnson-Thompson started the day with a 13.40 sprint hurdles as Thiam ran 13.56 and Hall 13.36.

Then followed some top-class high jumping with Thiam and Johnson-Thompson both clearing 1.92m as Hall jumped 1.89m.

In the shot put Thiam threw 15.54m but Johnson-Thompson rose to the occasion with a big PB of 14.44m – her first time over 14 metres – as Hall lost ground with 14.11m.

Then came the 200m with Johnson-Thompson winning her race in 23.44 as Thiam ran 24.46 and Hall 23.89. 

“Yeah, it was a good day, the best I have had in a long time,” said the 31-year-old. “I’ve been saying that training has been going really well. I’ve had no injuries since Rome (European Champs in June where she DNF’d), so I’ve been putting together weeks and weeks of training.

“You never know what to expect when you don’t compete as much, but I am really happy I was able to put out what I’ve been seeing in training.”

Johnson-Thompson’s final competitions included the London Diamond League but also the England Athletics Under-20 Championships and senior combined events, where she did just part of the competition.

“It is one of the best places I have ever been in coming into an Olympics,” said Johnson-Thompson. “This seems like a combination of everything that I have learned, so I am trying to put it together.”

Jade O’Dowda, 24, the Commonwealth bronze medallist, scored 3648 to place 17^th overnight with 100m hurdles in 13.53, high jump 1.80m, shot of 13.10m and 200m in 24.97.

Anna Hall (Getty)

“I think overall it was good,” she said. “It is my first Olympics, so I did just want to enjoy every moment and soak it all in.

“I was really happy with my hurdles and my high jump, not so happy with my shot put and my 200m. But I suppose there are always ups and downs. Onward to tomorrow.