World Athletics Championships: Katarina Johnson-Thompson eighth as Anouk Vetter leads Nafissatou Thiam in heptathlon

Katarina Johnson-Thompson sits eighth in the heptathlon standings going into the final discipline at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene. The Briton is on the brink of seeing her title defence fall short, with Anouk Vetter currently leading Nafissatou Thiam ahead of the 800m, which takes place at 2.55am BST.

Ad/> Johnson-Thompson posted 39.18m in the javelin, the penultimate event, earning her 652 points. World Championships‘Nothing I can do’ – Allen reacts to controversial disqualification at World Championships10 HOURS AGO That took her overall tally to 5,387 points, 354 off Anna Hall (5,741) in third, while Vetter will be out to beat Thiam to gold later, holding a narrow 19-point lead (6,045 to 6,026) over the two-time Olympic champion and 2017 world champion.

Thiam’s 800m personal best (2:15.24) is around two-and-a-half seconds quicker than Vetter (2:17.71), meaning it could be a close-run race to take Johnson-Thompson’s crown. Vetter needs to stay within 1.36 seconds to beat Thiam.

At Tokyo 2020, Thiam beat Vetter to gold by 101 points, the Belgian picking up 38 more points than the Dutch athlete in the 800m – a total that would help the former surpass the latter this time around. Johnson-Thompson changes coach ahead of World Athletics Championships ‘Nothing I can do’ – Allen reacts to controversial disqualification at World Championships Meanwhile, third-placed Hall is unlikely trouble the pair despite boasting an 800m PB of 2:03.11 from this year – the American is 304 points off first.