Redemption for Katarina Johnson-Thompson as she wins gold at the World Championships

Katarina Johnson-Thompson celebrates winning the heptathlon. Photo: Reuters/Dylan Martinez

Historic gold medal for Katarina Johnson. Thompson, but what is the most exciting and sweetest of redemptions.

Just two years after Johnson-Thompson was offered a wheelchair to leave the Olympic circuit in Tokyo, she has defied both the sporting odds and the inner voice telling her it's over — to become the third Briton to win a second World Athletics title. athletics.

“This is the best moment of my career…the best day of my life – it goes beyond my wildest dreams. «, she said.

Johnson-Thompson tore her Achilles tendon ahead of the postponed 2021 Olympics while she was reigning world champion and feared after another injury in Japan that she was destined to remain a shadow of her former athletic self. “I just thought I was going to take a backseat and be one of those athletes who has to come up with numbers, which is the last thing I wanted,” she said. “I decided to try again, I decided to break my heart, and this time I didn’t. I don't really have words. As in a dream.

With this list of British Women's World Champions led by three-time gold medalist Jessica Ennis-Hill, the heptathlon has produced 15 world medals since 1996. Each has its own distinct story, but few in the history of these championships have matched it either as a comeback story or just for the full drama of the finale.

Johnson-Thompson was overjoyed after enough to hold back the US Anna Hall (left) Photo: AP Photo/Denes Erdos

A two-day competition that started in heavy rain ended up reduced to 800 meters in scorching heat when Johnson-Thompson had to finish about 2.5 seconds ahead of American favorite Anna Hall.

Hall's personal best was more than four seconds better than Johnson-Thompson's, but over the previous two days, it's clear that the 30-year-old Briton is the one gaining strength and confidence the most.

Hall immediately established a clear advantage. As a result, Johnson-Thompson needed the best race of her life to win and, in true championship class, she first held the lead and then even shrank brilliantly in the last 200 meters. Her time of 2m5.63sec not only secured the win by 20 points (or about a second in the 800m), but was also the best time in her life when she needed it by more than two seconds. «I had no nerves — it was the easiest run I've ever done,» she said.

Johnson-Thompson's final score of 6,740 may have been short of the 6,981 she scored when she first became world champion in 2019, but she has always viewed the event as just a stepping stone to next year's Paris Games.

Indeed, initially modest expectations were only bolstered on Saturday morning when a starting 13.50 seconds in the 110m hurdles was followed by two early failures in the high jump by just 1.80m. The turning point was the daring clutch jump in the last attempt, when failure would very quickly destroy all hopes of a gold medal. Johnson-Thompson then took first place in the high jump with 1.86m before winning the 200m on Saturday and then the long jump on Sunday morning to establish a lead that she would not give up.

< p> Exactly. An hour after Johnson-Thompson won Britain's first gold at these championships, Jarnel Hughes added a second medal by reaching bronze in the desperately close 100m.

Hughes briefly threatened Noah Lyles in the 70m and even thought he had won, but the American 200m specialist got a clear light on the final strides and took the win in 9.83 seconds.

Jarnel Hughes was thrilled to take the bronze medal in the 100m. Photo: Getty Images/Sam Barnes

Then Hughes, Letsley Tebogo and Oblik Sevil finished uncovered in 9 .88 seconds. , and Tebogo became the first African to win a men's 100m World Championship medal ahead of Hughes. An emotional Hughes dedicated the medal to his mother, who he says kept believing in past disappointments, especially in the Olympic semi-finals

“The grief I experienced in Tokyo was devastating,” he said. “I kept it all to myself. I cried a lot. But I dug deep. I cried again because it was years of trying. Over the years, the speed has always been there, but the mind hasn't been set up properly.

“Honestly, I thought I caught him [Lyles]. I wanted a gold medal, but hey, leaving this championship with a medal around my neck, I'm so grateful. It means peace.