Katarina Johnson-Thompson claimed her first Olympic heptathlon medal but narrowly missed out on taking gold to Belgium's Nafissatou Thiam. 

Johnson-Thompson, who is a two-time world champion, produced a career-best performance in the 800m, clocking a time of 2:04.90 seconds.

After going into the final event 121 points behind Thiam, the Brit needed to finish nearly nine seconds quicker than her opponent to reach the top step of the podium. 

However, the Belgian finished with a time of 2:10.62 seconds, claiming gold by 36 points and becoming the first woman to win three heptathlon titles.

Thiam finished on 6,880 points, with her compatriot Noor Vidts moving above Switzerland's Annik Kaelin in the final event to take bronze.

Team GB's Jade O'Dowda finished 10th overall, while Ireland's Kate O'Connor was 14th.

 The excitement at the 2024 Carifta Games in Grenada reached a fever pitch as Guyana clinched a thrilling victory in the mixed 4x400m relay, sealing their triumph in the final event of the day. However, controversy loomed as Jamaica, initially finishing third, faced disqualification pending a review, prompting considerations of a protest from their management.

In a display of exceptional teamwork and determination, Guyana’s team, comprising Malachi Austin, Narissa McPherson, Dh Neilson Gill, and Tianna Springer, clocked an impressive time of 3:23.51, securing the gold medal and igniting celebrations among their supporters.

Following closely behind, Grenada, represented by Elisha Williams, Joshiem Sylvester, Cheffonia Houston, and Kemisha Dominique, delivered a commendable performance, finishing with a time of 3:29.19 to claim the silver medal.

Trinidad and Tobago, featuring Keone John, Kyah Hyson, Jaden Clement, and Kadija Pickering, rounded out the podium, clinching the bronze medal with a time of 3:31.24.

Earlier in the day, athletes showcased their talents in various events, adding to the spectacle of the Carifta Games. In the Girls Long Jump Under 17, J'kaiyah Rolle of Bahamas soared to victory with a jump of 5.77m, closely followed by Jamaica's Sashana Johnson and Belize's Brooklyn Lyttle, who leaped out to marks of 5.74m and 5.73, respectively.

In the Under 20 Boys Javelin Throw, Kaden Cartwright of Bahamas impressed with a winning throw of 67.34m, while Grenada's Rayvohn Telesford (67.34) and Dominica's Addison Alickson James (65.57m) secured second and third place, respectively.

Chrystophe Calliste of Grenada emerged victorious in the Boys Triple Jump Under 17 with a leap of 14.67m, beating out Jamaica's Amani Phillips ( 14.18m) and Bahamas' Davon Davis (14.16m) for the top spot.

The Girls Heptathlon saw an extraordinary tie for the gold medal between Jamaica's Kimeka Smith and Guadeloupe's Clémentine Carias, both amassing a total of 4699 points. Bahamas' Aaliyah Evans secured the bronze medal with a total score of 4181 points.

As the sun set on Day 2 of the Carifta Games, the atmosphere crackled with anticipation for the upcoming Day 3, promising more exhilarating performances and thrilling moments on the track and field.

Kelly Sotherton celebrated heptathlon gold at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, on this day in 2006.

Sotherton, then aged 29, won what proved the sole major title of her career to give England a fourth of six athletics golds at the Games.

Having seen her commanding lead after five events almost cut in half following a poor javelin display, fourth place in the final event, the 800 metres, was enough to seal overall victory.

She finished with 6,396 points, 98 ahead of Australian silver-medallist Kylie Wheeler, while 20-year-old team-mate Jessica Ennis, who had been a point ahead of Wheeler heading into the 800m, took bronze with 6,269.

Despite becoming champion, Sotherton expressed unhappiness over her performance, particularly her showing in the javelin – her best of 32.04m was more than a metre down on the 33.09m which ultimately cost her a world championship bronze medal in Helsinki the previous year.

“At the moment I’m disappointed, not for gold but for my points total,” she said.

“I had a rubbish day today, my javelin is just getting worse. I have no words to describe how gutted I am at letting myself down.

“But when I stand on the top step of the podium and listen to the national anthem for the first time ever I think I’ll realise I have achieved something quite good today.

“I just wanted to win and get across the line to become Commonwealth champion.”

Sotherton had claimed heptathlon bronze at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and further bronzes were earned from the heptathlon at the Osaka 2007 World Championships and Beijing 2008 Olympics, as well as the 4x400m relay at the latter.

Sotherton, who announced her retirement in 2012, did not receive the Beijing medals until 2018, having been upgraded following disqualifications.

Jessica Ennis-Hill announced her retirement from athletics on this day in 2016.

She had won Olympic gold in the heptathlon at London 2012 and silver at Rio 2016, and retired as a two-time world champion.

Ennis-Hill, then 30, released a statement on her Instagram account to announce her decision and admitted it was “one of the toughest decisions” she had ever had to make during her successful career.

The Sheffield-born heptathlete returned to competition after the birth of her son Reggie in July 2014 and went on to win the World Athletics Championships in Beijing in 2015 having already achieved the qualifying standard for Rio.

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It was her second world heptathlon title after previously achieving the feat in Berlin in 2009 while claiming silver in 2011.

Ennis-Hill’s senior breakthrough came at her only Commonwealth Games in 2006 where she picked up bronze, finishing behind winner and team-mate Kelly Sotherton.

But she was destined for more greatness and won gold at the 2010 European Championships before claiming the World Indoor Pentathlon title in the same year.

The victories were part of her dominance of the sport between 2009 and 2012 ahead of her success at London 2012.

She won the 100 metres hurdles before coming sixth in the high jump and 10th in the shot put. A personal best of 22.83 seconds saw her finish second in the 200 metres and Ennis-Hill was also second in the long jump before she threw a personal best of 47.49 metres in the javelin to finish 10th and put her on the brink of glory.

She earned the Olympic crown with a season’s best of two minutes and eight seconds in the 800 metres to win the race.

Ennis-Hill then called time on her career following the 2016 Olympics after she narrowly failed to retain her Olympic heptathlon title-winning silver behind Belgian Nafissatou Thiam at Rio 2016.

She won the 800m – the final discipline of the competition – but it was not enough to overtake Thiam, who won by 35 points.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson is on the brink of a stunning heptathlon gold at the World Championships.

The 30-year-old is fighting to reclaim her world crown from 2019 and holds a 26-point lead ahead of the final 800m on Sunday night in Budapest.

It would represent a remarkable comeback from Johnson-Thompson after a ruptured Achilles in 2020 and a calf injury at the Tokyo Olympics which forced her to quit after day one.

A leap of 6.54m in the long jump on Sunday morning put her into the lead, 19 points ahead of the United States’ Anna Hall.

She launched a personal best of 46.14m in the javelin which extended her lead as Hall dropped to third.

The Netherlands’ Anouk Vetter, last year’s silver medallist, is Johnson-Thompson’s nearest challenger, with defending champion Nafi Thiam having pulled out before the championships with an Achilles problem.

Johnson-Thompson has run two minutes 12.40 seconds in the 800m this year while Vetter’s personal best is five seconds slower. Hall has run two minutes 02.97secs this year but is reportedly carrying an injury.

Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita opened their 100m challenge with minimum fuss in Hungary.

Neita, in heat one, ran 11.03secs while Asher-Smith followed her in heat two to clock 11.04s.

Defending champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce ran 11.01s with the USA’s Sha’Carri Richardson qualifying fastest in 10.92s.

Britain’s Matt Hudson-Smith, who won bronze last year, reached the 400m semi-finals after coming second in his heat behind 2016 Olympic champion Wayde van Niekerk.

He said: “I just wanted the qualifier and to get through to the semis as comfortably as possible so I have got the job done. There is so much left in the tank but I know I am going to have to fight.

“I’ve got both my legs back. Everyone keeps talking about Steve (Gardiner) and Wayde but I’m not here for participation, I’m here to get a medal. I’ve got both my legs back and I’m here to win.”

Victoria Ohuruogu and Ama Pipi also reached the women’s 400m semi final.

Ohuruogu said: “I’m looking for a medal – I’ve got to aim big. Last year was about the final and people might say I was unrealistic but I was a bit gutted with that so I have clear aims this year, a medal being what I am aiming for.”

Katarina Johnson-Thompson refused to get carried away despite remaining in gold medal contention at the World Championships.

The 2019 world heptathlon champion sits second, 93 points adrift of leader Anna Hall, after the first day in Budapest.

She still faces a battle to return to the global podium with the United States’ Chari Hawkins just five points behind and team-mate Taliyah Brooks a further 13 points adrift.

But, after an Achilles rupture in 2020, Johnson-Thompson remains cautiously optimistic.

She said: “I’m just seeing what I can do. Who would have predicted today?

“Sport is so unpredictable and especially heptathlon. That’s why I don’t like trying to think about what’s going to happen in the future. I’m just trying to take each event as it comes.

“It’s really close behind me as well. All I need to do is just keep knocking on the door, stay in the flow and who knows what can happen?

“I just want a medal. I’m definitely in amongst it.”

A storm postponed the action by an hour in the morning and forced Johnson-Thompson to wait.

The 30-year-old ran 13.50 seconds in her 100 metres hurdles heat, before clearing 1.86m in the high jump.

It left her fourth overall with 2104 points – 41 adrift of leader Hall – before the evening session.

A best of 13.64m in the shot put dropped her to joint fifth before victory in her 200m heat in 23.48s boosted her medal hopes heading into the second day.

She added: “Today has been one of the most gruelling days of heptathlon I’ve ever experienced. We are all feeling it and we’re all talking to each other and asking, why are we so tired?

“I think it was the delay, waking up at six, warming up and then being told ‘no, stop.'”

Zharnel Hughes, the fastest man in the world this year, clocked 10 seconds in his 100m heat ahead of Sunday’s semi-finals and final.

Hughes, the British 100m and 200m record holder, won his race while Reece Prescod, who pulled out of the relay squad earlier this week, qualified in third in his heat.

Eugene Amo-Dadzie, an accountant who is due back to work once the Championships finish, was second in his heat on his Great Britain debut.

The 31-year-old has taken annual leave to compete in Budapest and returns to work as a senior management accountant for property developer Berkeley Group on August 29.

“I’m on the world stage. I say to people who don’t really know track and field ‘I’m at the World Cup of athletics’ and they’re like ‘OK’,” he said, after running 10.10s.

“For me, that’s incredible because this is beyond a dream. I didn’t grow up dreaming to do this but, by the grace of God, I found myself doing this.

“I’ve had a lot of support from all the different accountant bodies. They’re like ‘yo, you’re putting accountants on the map’. We’re not just these boring stiff squares sat at the office typing away.”

Great Britain captain Laura Muir, who has endured a disrupted year after splitting from long-term coach Andy Young in March, was second in her 1500m heat in the morning session.

She clocked four minutes 03.50 seconds behind the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan.

Kenya’s defending champion Faith Kipyegon remains the overwhelming favourite and won her heat in 4:02.62.

Great Britain’s Katie Snowden and Melissa Courtney-Bryant also progressed to Sunday’s semi final.

Muir said: “Job done, I wanted to qualify with as little drama as possible.

“I was a little disappointed we weren’t in the rain. I would have been happy to crack on but I know there’s a lot of electrical equipment and technical equipment and the rain doesn’t suit everybody.

“It’s a fast track, I think it’ll be an exciting champs. As soon as I did a couple of strides it felt nice. There’s always a bit of scrapping and spiking but I felt comfortable.

“I saw Sifan go past and I was expecting that but I was scared she would go and everyone would come. I kept looking up and saw there was a gap.”

In the men’s 1500m Josh Kerr, who won Olympic bronze in Tokyo, Neil Gourley and Elliot Giles all reached Sunday’s semis, with last year’s world champion Jake Wightman out with injury.

Jazmin Sawyers, the European indoor champion, finished 22nd in qualifying to miss out on the long jump final with a best of just 6.41m.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson recovered from a nervous heptathlon opening on the first morning of the World Championships.

The 2019 world champion sits fourth after a delayed start at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest.

A storm postponed the action by an hour and forced Johnson-Thompson to wait but she struggled in the first event.

The 30-year-old ran 13.50 seconds in her 100m hurdles heat, well behind the American trio of Taliyah Brooks, Anna Hall and Chari Hawkins.

Before her Achilles rupture in 2020, Johnson-Thompson had run a personal best of 13.09 seconds – en route to winning the world title in 2019 – and clocked a season’s best of 13.34 seconds at the British Championships last month.

She entered the high jump at 1.77m, clearing at the first attempt, before eventually leaping 1.80m on her third jump to settle the nerves.

A clearance of 1.86m left her second in the high jump and fourth overall with 2104 points – 41 adrift of leader Hall – with the shot put and 200m to come in the evening session in Hungary.

Great Britain captain Laura Muir, who has endured a disrupted year after splitting from long-term coach Andy Young in March, was second in her 1500m heat.

She clocked four minutes 03.50 seconds behind the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan.

Kenya’s defending champion Faith Kipyegon remains the overwhelming favourite and won her heat in four minutes 02.62 seconds.

Great Britain’s Katie Snowden and Melissa Courtney-Bryant also progressed to Sunday’s semi final.

Muir said: “Job done, I wanted to qualify with as little drama as possible.

“I was a little disappointed we weren’t in the rain. I would have been happy to crack on but I know there’s a lot of electrical equipment and technical equipment and the rain doesn’t suit everybody.

“It’s a fast track, I think it’ll be an exciting champs. As soon as I did a couple of strides it felt nice. There’s always a bit of scrapping and spiking but I felt comfortable.

“I saw Sifan go past and I was expecting that but I was scared she would go and everyone would come. I kept looking up and saw there was a gap.”

Jazmin Sawyers, the European indoor champion, finished 22nd in qualifying to miss out on the long jump final with a best of just 6.41m.

The 4x400m mixed relay quartet of Joe Brier, Laviai Nielsen, Rio Mitcham and Yemi Mary John reached Saturday night’s final in three minutes 11.19 seconds.

Nielsen said: “It was fast and loud, so I think that gave us an extra lift. We have all been itching to go so we are pleased with how we have performed as a team.”

Zharnel Hughes, the fastest man in the world this year, runs in the 100m heats in the evening with Reece Prescod and Eugene Amo-Dadzie.

Six days after her 23^rd birthday, Tyra Gittens gifted herself the heptathlon title on what was for her a bittersweet final day of the 2021 NCAA Division I Outdoor Athletics Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

In what she described as the hardest meet of her life, the Texas A&M junior topped the heptathlon high jump (1.84m), long jump (6.64) and 200m (23.79) on the way to her second-best score of 6285 points that was more than enough for victory but 135 points off the Olympic qualifying standard of 6420.

It was, however, 218 more of the University of Miami’s Michelle Atherley. The Miami senior, who was the fastest in the 100m hurdles (13.15), scored 6067 points for the silver medal. University of Texas freshman Kristine Blazevica scored 5984 points for the bronze medal.

Putting it simply, after three days of gruelling competition, Gittens just ran out of gas. She literally fell across the finish line to complete the heptathlon 800m in which she was 19^th overall, scoring 707 points for her time of 2:28.88.

Her legs were sapped because after the long jump on Thursday in which she won a silver medal, Gittens then had four events in the heptathlon on Friday before completing the other three on Saturday even while contending for individual honours in the high jump.

She just managed to complete the high jump 10 minutes before competing in the heptathlon 800m, her final event of the meet.

The athlete, who has a season-best of 1.95m was only able to clear 1.87m, good enough for third place behind A&M teammate, Jamaica’s Lamara Distin, who cleared a personal best 1.90m to win the silver medal. The gold medal went to South Carolina freshman, Rachel Glenn, who cleared a personal-best 1.93m.

Gittens just missed out on long-jump gold on Thursday when she soared out to 6.68m, two centimetres shy of the winning mark of 6.70m by Texas sophomore Tara Davis.

 Jasmine Moore of Georgia jumped 6.65m for the bronze medal.

Strange as it may sound, Tyra Gittens is both happy and disappointed with her record-breaking performance in the heptathlon at the SEC Championships at Bryan College Station in Texas last weekend.

The 22-year-old Trinidadian who attends Texas A&M University scored a personal best 6418 points to win the two-day event. Her score which was just two points off the Olympic qualifying standard of 6420 points is also a championship-leading effort as well as a meet and facility record. 

“I am proud of where I am. I am proud of my accomplishments. I hope the world sees that I have so much potential and I have so much more room to grow. This is just the beginning,” she said.

Along the way, Gittens achieved several personal milestones, including a massive personal lifetime best in the long jump of 6.96, which qualifies her for the Olympics this summer and a personal best and a national record 1.95m for the high jump and a centimetre shy of the Olympic standard.

It was also the first time in history that a woman had jumped 1.95m in the high jump and beyond 6.95m in the long jump in the same heptathlon. Gittens now holds national records for the high jump outdoors and indoors, the long jump outdoors and indoors, the pentathlon and the heptathlon.

However, she wasn’t satisfied and revealed her true ambitions, believing she is capable of so much more.

“I don’t like to talk about my goals publicly because then people take it as ‘Oh, she’s trying to talk smack’ but I want people to hold me accountable when I say this. I want to be the ultimate heptathlete and that means breaking Jackie Joyner’s record and that’s what I’m going for.

 “This is my first time saying that publicly but I have never been at a point in my life when I’ve felt so confident saying that, and after this weekend, even though my heptathlon wasn’t what I wanted, my mentality and how I pushed through one of the hardest weekends but one of the best weekends of my life, I am ready and I know, I really think I can get this world record.”

 It is that lofty goal and it is the accompanying mentality that has her experiencing mixed feelings about her record-breaking weekend. Joyner-Kersee’s heptathlon record, which has stood since 1988, is 7291 points and it explains why Gittens wasn’t so happy with her performance last weekend because she understands that if she is to break that record, she has to be better at all her disciplines, not just two or three.

 “The long jump and the high jump were the highlights of my meet. I rarely surprise myself but I definitely surprised myself in the long jump,” she the Texas A&M senior said.

 “The high jump wasn’t necessarily a surprise. I knew this is where I wanted to be around this time. In the long jump, I didn’t expect to reach 6.90 so soon. I know I could do it, I knew I could be up there but I was thinking later on in my career, like years later.”

However, as good as she was in the long and high jumps, Gitten concedes that her performance in several other disciplines did not meet her expectations and it was a bitter pill to swallow.

 “The shot put definitely hurt me, just because of how inconsistent it was. It was embarrassing for me to come off such a high in the high jump, not to be able to gather myself correctly for the shot put. I thought I did but I still had a lot of adrenalin and excitement from the high jump and it never allowed me to focus on the shot put and it just didn’t click,” she said of her 658-point 11.96m throw that was well short of her 13.58m throw that earned her 807 points in a heptathlon on May 8.

 She was equally devastated by how poor she was in the 800m that she completed in 2:31.97 and which she said came as a shock.

 “The 800 was a surprise. I did not expect to run that slow. I started the race and normally I have someone yelling my 100m splits but this time there were two events going on so my coach wasn’t able to so he put some people to say the times. I didn’t hear them and so I was kind of running blindly and it wasn’t until the last 150 when I saw the finish-line time board and I saw that I was way behind my pace,” she said.

“I honestly started tearing up running down the straightaway because I knew I didn’t set myself up in the other events like the shot put and the hurdles, even though my long jump and high jump were great, the Hep was not very consistent for me.” 

Such is the mentality of the effervescent Trinidadian that she has chosen to focus on the silver lining rather than dwell on the dark clouds.

 “That being said, everything happens for a reason. I was very impressed with myself that my hep was a pretty bad one. The things that saved me, the high jump, my 200 and long jump because everything else was not where I wanted to be at all,” she confessed, “the hurdles, shot put, javelin even though it was PB in the Hep for me, I see myself a little farther along than 40 metres. The 800 definitely broke my heart.”

She was devastated to come so close to the Olympic standard. 

“Being only two points away from the standard is definitely tough to swallow because it was just two points and I knew what I needed to do but at the end of the day, it is what it is. It happened. I came out with an Olympic standard and literally kissing the other standards,” she said. 

“I am on pace. I knew my open events would come before my Hep because it is a lot harder to put together than get one jump. I am not worried. I am not stressing. I am actually above my pace for what I want to do and the next Hep is going to be bigger and better because I am going to come in ready to be more consistent and ready to stay focused. 

“I want to shine. I want to be the ultimate heptathlete, meaning I want to be consistently good, amazing in some (events) and consistently good in others. I would love to be a Jackie Joyner and be amazing at all seven but that’s not my reality, so you have to take advantage of what you’re really good at and then you have to work and stay focused on what you’re not so gifted in.”

 Gittens also finished second in the individual high jump, clearing 1.89m. She was also fourth in the long jump with a 6.56m leap. For her efforts, she was named United States Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Athlete of the Week.

Tyra Gittens believes things are falling into place for another great performance in the heptathlon at this weekend’s SEC Championships. Her confidence would have been further buoyed by encouraging performances at the Aggie Invitational at Bryan-College Station in Texas on Saturday.

Texas A&M's Tyra Gittens was super excited about her new personal best in the heptathlon this weekend but acknowledged that there is still room for a lot of improvement. This is especially true if he wants to achieve her goal of competing in the multi-event discipline at this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

The 22-year-old Trinidadian, the 2021 NCAA pentathlon champion competing in her first heptathlon is more than two years scored an NCAA-leading 6274 points after completing the seven events at the Texas A&M Invitational held at Bryan-College Station in Texas on Friday and Saturday.

She won all four disciplines in windy conditions on Friday. She opened up with a time of 13.14 in the 100m hurdles for 1103 points, cleared 1.82m in the high jump, scoring 1003 points and won the shot put with a throw of 12.85m that earned her 717 points. In the final event of the day, she won the 200m sprint in 23.33, scoring 1046 points.

She returned on Saturday morning winning the long jump with a leap of 6.67m that earned her 1062 points. She only managed 631 points for the javelin and then rounded out the competition with a 2:28.52 run in the 800m for 712 points.

“Mood for a huge personal best, new school record, and an NCAA leading 6274 points in my first heptathlon in forever! Still so much to work on and I can’t wait to recover and get back into training” she posted on Instagram afterwards, very much aware of the work that she needs to get done if she is to book a ticket to Tokyo.

The 6247 points she scored is still 173 shy of the Olympic qualifying standard of 6420 points.

Texas A&M’s Tyra Gittens wants to wrap up qualification for the Olympic heptathlon as soon as the outdoor season begins, but if she doesn’t, she is confident that there are other ways for her to get to Tokyo.