Atheltics Weekly

EVENT-BY-EVENT PREVIEW – WOMEN
AFTER storming to the Olympic
title in Rio last year, Nafissatou
Thiam left another huge imprint
in heptathlon history in Gotzis
in May when she scored 7013
to go No.3 on the world all-time
rankings.
Only world record-holder
Jackie Joyner-Kersee and
Carolina Kluft have achieved
better. She did it with a Belgian
record 59.32m in the javelin, too.
Such was the quality of the
Gotzis meeting, British No.1
Katarina Johnson-Thompson
set a PB of 6691 but was only
fourth. Ahead of her, Carolin
Schafer of Germany scored
6836 and Laura Ikauniece-
Admidina of Latvia 6815, while
Thiam was on another level,
breaking the 7000-point barrier.
Thiam was only 14th and
11th at previous two World
Championships in Moscow
and Beijing, but her promise
was clear when she won the
European junior title in 2013
and talent runs in her family
as her mother is a gold medal
winning masters multi-eventer.
Of course Gotzis was over
two months ago, so she might
not be in the same form.
Straight after the competition,
for example, she had exams at
the University of Liege, where
she has studied geography.
As for Johnson-Thompson’s
challenge, the 24-year-old will
be hoping to recapture the
winning habit she had a couple
of years ago when she claimed
European indoor pentathlon
gold in Prague.
Since that victory she has
endured a frustrating time
performance-wise at major
championships.
She fouled all her three long
jump attempts at the 2015
World Championships in Beijing
and produced a mixed bag
of results at the Rio Olympic
Games – setting a UK high
jump record but ultimately
finishing a disappointed sixth.
It triggered a change of
scenery for her as she moved
from Merseyside to France to
team up with a new coach
and training group. Judging
by her PB in Gotzis, things are
going well.
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THIAM AND KJT BOTH AIMING
FOR LONDON SEVENTH HEAVEN
HEPTATHLON
Laura Ikauniece-
Admidina:
Latvian is
a rising force
Nafissatou Thiam:
after gold in Rio, the
Belgian smashed
the 7000-point
barrier this
summer
Filling the golden spikes of
the now retired Jessica Ennis-
Hill is also a tough task but
Johnson-Thompson will be
going for nothing less than
gold in London.
Schafer and Ikauniece-
Admidina are obvious rivals
for a podium place. Schafer
won the world and European
junior titles in 2008-09 but has
struggled to make her mark
internationally and was fifth
in Rio 12 months ago, while
Ikauniece-Admidina won bronze
in Beijing two years ago and
was fourth in Rio.
As for other contenders, look
out for Schafer’s German teammate
Claudia Salman-Rath,
Americans Kendell Williams
and Erica Bougard and Anouk
Vetter of the Netherlands.
In the battle for medals,
though, if there is any
consolation to the athletes
in this high-quality event, it
is that the silver and bronze
medallists from Rio – Ennis-Hill
and Brianne Theisen-Eaton of
Canada – have retired. JH
Event statistics
World record: 7291 Jackie Joyner-
Kersee (USA)
Champs record: 7128 Jackie
Joyner-Kersee (USA)
Defending champion: Jessica
Ennis-Hill (GBR)
British interest: Katarina Johnson-
Thompson
AW prediction: 1 Thiam (BEL);
2 Schafer (GER); 3 Johnson-
Thompson (GBR)
History: Both Carolina Kluft and
Jessica Ennis-Hill have won three
world titles although the latter won
one of hers retrospectively (for
Daegu 2011) when Russia’s Tatyana
Chernova was disqualified after
failing a drugs test.
A T H L E T I C S W E E K L Y 5 1