Johnson-Thompson insists: I will crack the heptathlon before it cracks me

Katarina Johnson-Thompson insists she is on course to crack the heptathlon despite the bitter frustration of a “missed opportunity” at the World Championships.

One year on from her sixth place in the Rio Olympics when she suffered a miserable time in the javelin, the 24-year-old British No1 finished fifth in the world despite underperforming in the high jump. In 2015 when well placed to win a gold medal in the Beijing World Championships, her hopes ended when she registered three successive failures in the long jump – close but not to be for one of the world’s most talented athletes.

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Over the last two years since establishing herself as a serious contender for the sport’s biggest prizes with a series of stunning performances; ranked no.1 in the world in 2014 aged just 21, winning a world silver medal that year in the long jump (considered a secondary event), and taking European Indoor Championships gold in 2015 with the second greatest performance in history, Great Britain has been optimistic that in “KJT” the country will again have a world champion.

Convinced she will get things right by the time the next Olympics comes around – if not before – and that she will even be around for two more Olympic Games, Johnson-Thompson said: “I go into every championship wanting to medal which is a realistic target and being in London it was very frustrating to miss out. It was a missed opportunity. To win something in front of the home crowd would have been perfect.

“There were many aspects of my heptathlon I was happy with so it was definitely a bittersweet championship for me. If I could have jumped in the heptathlon what I did in the high jump competition I would have got a silver medal, (her jump of 1.95m equates to 193 more points. Johnson-Thompson finished 138 points behind silver) – but as it is my strongest event I expected to do better.”

World and Olympic champion Nafi Thiam is dominating the event at the moment but Johnson-Thompson does not believe she and the rest of the field are merely competing for silver.

Thiam topped 7,000 points this year, something not even Jessica Ennis ever did, but Johnson-Thompson insisted: “Things can go wrong, people can set new PBs. Until you get the start of the 800m and know how many points you need, anything is possible.

“Make one mistake and everyone is on you. Thiam is giving people belief that they can get big scores and can excel so she is not in a class of her own. I never go out thinking I am fighting for a silver medal. I go out to win everything I do. And it’s not all about her possibly having a bad event, it’s about me having 7 good events.

The heptathlon is now stronger than it has ever been. Johnson-Thompson’s score of 6691 earlier this year would have not only secured her a medal at every other previous World Championship, it would have been enough to win the last two World Championships and betters the winning mark of a previous British heptathlon champion Denise Lewis when she won gold in Sydney Olympics 2000.

Current world record holder Jackie-Joyner Kersee suggests Johnson-Thompson is somebody with the ability to surpass her points tally but with time still on her side, Johnson-Thompson is focusing on putting seven events together to the maximum of her undoubted ability.

“I have already done two Olympics and I feel I have another two left in me. In 2012 everything went right for me but it’s hard to get each event to a standard where you are going to score high every time.

“Jess was 26 when she won gold in London. I will be 27 at the next Olympics. This year I have proved that I can do a lot better so that’s very encouraging. I was just happy that I was able to bounce back and put together five events in a row so well in London. It bodes well for the future but is just so frustrating for the present.

“I honestly do not know what went wrong for me on the high jump. I was waiting around a long time but that’s no excuse because I have done that many times before. It’s not a matter of self-belief – if anything it was me not taking the lower heights seriously enough.

“I am thinking 1.86m ‘OK no problem’. I know it’s not nerves; I am only nervous before the first event then I settle into things. It’s not self-belief either – I know I can jump high. It was a freak accident.”

Johnson-Thompson is convinced that relocating to Montpellier will eventually see her to glory. She said: “I am very happy with the way things are going. I knew it would be difficult this year – it’s hard to change everything at once and get results instantaneously but I am going in the right direction.

“I am feeling the benefits of living in France now – all the advice and coaching – it’s been great. It’s a process and one that’s going well for me.”

She also drew consolation from her fifth place in the high jump competition in which she cleared 1.95m, just 3cm below her personal best of 1.98m set last year in the heptathlon at the Rio Olympics where the individual gold medal was won with a jump of 1.97m.

She said: “I was very pleased with my high jump. The three medallists cleared 1.99m first time and after my heptathlon high jump I was delighted to get so close to my personal best. I would definitely consider doing the high jump for a season but not until I have cracked the heptathlon.

“I would see switching to the high jump exclusively as giving up and I won’t give up the seven events until I have shown what I am capable of.