Katarina Johnson-Thompson believes world indoors gold will banish demons

Katarina Johnson-Thompson believes her first world title shows she has mentally toughened up and can put her on the path towards Olympic glory.

The 25-year-old has long been the bridesmaid but never the bride in global competition. But her gold medal in the world indoors on Friday has erased many of the mental demons she suffered after falling short at the 2016 Olympics and 2015 and 2017 World Championships.

“It’s been a difficult couple of years for me, especially in Rio and in London last year,” said Johnson-Thompson, whose score of 4,750 was 50 clear of the Austrian Ivana Dodic. “While I know Friday wasn’t my best performance, I fought to the end and I’m very proud.”

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The popular Liverpudlian also admitted for the first time that she has succumbed to pressure in the past. “I knew it was mental in the fact that sometimes in my training I was a lot better than I was in competition,” she said. “And it’s still the case. But it’s about not giving up after one throw, and knowing I can work on this and I can get better. Now I want more. I just want this to be the start.”

Johnson-Thompson’s next step will be the Commonwealth Games in April, which is an almost certain gold given the weakness of the field. That will take her into the European Championships in Berlin in August, then next year’s World Championships in Doha and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

“Every sports person wants that Olympic title,” she said. “I’ve got two years to get myself up to that standard. I believe in myself. I just need one of those performances where I get it all together and I’m capable of being competitive at the highest level.”

Johnson-Thompson believes that her move to France at the end of 2016 had transformed her career. “ At first everything was up in the air,” she said. “I didn’t have a place to live properly for a long time. I was unsettled learning new techniques, not really understanding anything, people talking French, and being completely on my own after being mothered all my life.

“But I have really grown up. I also had a full winter of training, building on what I had learned and it has really paid off. I can see a path now.”