Johnson-Thompson closing in on heptathlon gold

Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson moved closer to winning the heptathlon gold medal at the World Championships on Thursday evening.

The 26-year-old held an overnight advantage of 96 points over Olympic and defending champion Nafi Thiam in Doha.

But having impressed in the long jump and javelin, she increased that lead to 137 points with just the 800 metres to come.

That means Thiam needs to beat Johnson-Thompson by eight seconds to overtake her and snatch gold.

Johnson-Thompson recorded 6.32m with her first long-jump attempt before improving to post 6.77m – the biggest leap of the competition.

Her no-jump on her third go did not matter as she comfortably had a better mark than Thiam’s 6.40.

Then in the javelin, Johnson-Thompson recorded a personal-best 43.93 metres with her second effort to apply more pressure on Thiam.

The Belgian fouled with her first throw and after registering 48.04m chose not to take her final effort as she walked off the track to prepare for the 800m.