Katarina Johnson-Thompson withdraws after three heptathlon events due to injury

The reigning world champion was down in ninth place following the 100 metres hurdles, high jump and shot put.

Pa Sport Staff
Friday 07 June 2024 22:37 BST
Katarina Johnson-Thompson withdrew from the European Championships in Rome after three events of the heptathlon (Andrew Medichini/AP)
Katarina Johnson-Thompson withdrew from the European Championships in Rome after three events of the heptathlon (Andrew Medichini/AP) (AP)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson has withdrawn from the European Athletics Championships in Rome after three events of the heptathlon due to injury.

The reigning world champion was down in ninth place following the 100 metres hurdles, high jump and shot put and pulled out ahead of the final event of day one, the 200m.

“Kat has developed a small niggle in her right leg and, in light of the proximity of the Olympic Games, we have chosen to bank what we have learned from this first day of competition and withdraw from the heptathlon,” Johnson-Thompson’s coach Aston Moore said.

“We don’t want to risk losing any time from training which could be the result if she was to carry on competing with it for another day. We wish all the other competitors well for the rest of the competition.”

Johnson-Thompson ran 13.66 seconds in the hurdles, more than half a second down on her personal best, before clearing 1.83 metres in the high jump to move up to fourth place.

The 31-year-old could only manage a best of 12.44m in the shot put to slip to ninth, more than 300 points behind Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam, who had cleared 1.95m in the high jump to take command of the competition.

On the track, Jemma Reekie had earlier led team-mates Georgia Bell and Katie Snowden into the women’s 1,500m final, while Elliot Giles and Thomas Randolph reached the men’s 800m semi-finals.

Morgan Lake also reached the women’s high jump final, while Lawrence Okoye finished eighth in the discus final with a best of 63.48m in the final round.

The British quartet of Charlie Carvell, Hannah Kelly, Lewis Davey and Emily Newnham finished fifth in the final of the inaugural 4x400m mixed relay as Ireland’s Chris O’Donnell, Rhasidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr and Sharlene Mawdsley took gold ahead of home nation Italy.

Italy had claimed the first medals of the championship with a one-two in the women’s 20km walk, where the drama was reserved for the battle for bronze.

Spain’s Laura Garcia-Caro looked to have secured third place and was already celebrating when she realised to her horror that she was about to be overtaken on the line by Ukraine’s Lyudmila Olyanovska.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in