Katarina Johnson-Thompson delivered one of the lowest heptathlon scores of her career and then admitted she will need to contemplate her future as an elite-level competitor after finishing last at the European Championships.
The 33-year-old, clearly unfit after recent difficulties with a calf issue, effectively jogged the 800m to bring an end to her hugely underwhelming campaign in Birmingham.
Johnson-Thompson’s final tally of 5,790 points left her 21st of the 21 finishers in the field and amounted to her second worst score from 16 major events across 14 years as a professional athlete. Having skipped the Commonwealth Games to be ready for Birmingham, the Olympic silver medallist never looked in race shape in Birmingham, where Ireland’s Kate O’Connor took the title with 6,751 points.
After entering Saturday a full 324 points off first in 16th place, Johnson-Thompson’s struggles continued with a low mark of 5.77m in long jump before forfeiting her next two jumps. A throw of 36.92m in the javelin and an 800m time of 2:24.92 were in keeping with an event where she repeatedly returned scores miles beneath her best.
Questions will now focus on whether Johnson-Thompson has the appetite or health to continue onwards to the LA Olympics in 2028. That has been her stated aim, and one repeated in a recent interview with Daily Mail Sport, but niggling injuries have a habit of recurring with age, so there might be cause for post-season discussions with her coach Aston Moore.
She said: ‘I am thinking of the future. I always said that I want to be competitive. If I am not competitive, then I’ll start to ask questions.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson suffered through one of the most disappointing heptathlons to date
‘This year was definitely a bit different in terms of my preparation for training. But I’ve still got sand behind my nails and my body’s still warm, I can’t think about the future too much. I want to be in the moment.
‘The hunger is definitely still there and I love this event so much.’
Earlier, Laura Muir, also 33 and struggling with injury, failed to qualify for Sunday’s 1500m final. Britain’s Georgia Hunter Bell will line up as the favourite.
Bell, 32, said: ‘Sometimes you need to take a minute and reflect to see how far you have come.
‘I only became a pro in 2024 just after the Olympic Games. Now we’re here a few years on and the bar keeps changing – I am still in the honeymoon period with it. I am loving being an athlete. I was working in an office job for seven years.’
