Katarina Johnson-Thompson frustrated at failure to challenge for medals

Defending champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson revealed her frustration at failing to challenge for medals after day one of the heptathlon.

The 29-year-old sits sixth with little hope of retaining her title at the World Championships in Eugene.

The 2019 winner trails leader and Olympic champion Nafi Thiam by 273 points and lies 193 points adrift of the podium places.

Injuries and a late change of coach have left Johnson-Thompson, who has 3798 points, playing catch-up and disappointed.

She said: “It’s not nice, it’s not a place where I want to be at a Championships, especially as I know I can do so much better historically and I think I could have done better with a few tweaks. I’m proud of just being here.

“I got back into really hard training in the last six weeks but unfortunately I haven’t come out of the other side in the place I wanted to be.

“I’m still here, I’m still fighting and this is part of what I’m trying to do at this championships, be here, fight and be competitive.”

But Johnson-Thompson insists she trusts her body after battling back from a ruptured Achilles in December 2020 and a calf injury which forced her to pull out after the 200m at last year’s Olympics.

She said: “Yeah, lining up on the bend and being in a tight lane in lane two and pushing off on the right leg, you’re worried the pictures from Tokyo will repeat but that’s a mental process I have to get through. It’s hard.”

Johnson-Thompson sat seventh after the first morning with 2,781 points following the first three events.

She has only managed one full heptathlon since winning the world crown in Doha three years ago, the Gotzis hypo-meeting in May, following injury.

There was little expectation the Commonwealth Games champion would have been able