Katarina Johnson-Thompson set a new British pentathlon record and claimed the first major title of her career at the European Indoor Championships, on this day in 2015.

Johnson-Thompson was in outstanding form at Prague’s 02 Arena, amassing 5,000 points to defeat the field and best Jessica Ennis-Hill’s previous high of 4,965.

The then 22-year-old, delivering on her long-known potential, came agonisingly close to an even bigger prize as she came within a whisker of the world record.

Johnson-Thompson won the 60 metre hurdles with a personal best and set championship records in the high jump and long jump to put the landmark within her sights.

Needing to clock 2mins 11.86secs over 800m to break the world record, Johnson-Thompson crossed the line in 2:12.78 and admitted her own high hopes left a tinge of frustration on her big day.

“I was gutted, instant regret,” said Johnson-Thompson, who became only the second athlete to score 5,000 points in the pentathlon as she finished just 13 points away from Ukrainian Natallia Dobrynska’s record.

“I’ve been tearing my brains out these last couple of weeks thinking I could get it, so to come so close, yeah I’m disappointed.

“If someone had said to me, ‘You’ve got 5000 points and a gold medal’, at the beginning of the day I would have taken it, but because everything was going so well and I was so close, I think that’s what made me so sad. I could have got it if I had pushed a little bit more.”

Ennis-Hill, watching from home having stepped away from the sport to start a family, congratulated her Team GB team-mate on Twitter, saying: “Well done Kat!! Amazing performance! Sad to see my record go but couldn’t have gone to a more deserving athlete!”

Johnson-Thompson went on to eclipse her compatriot once again when she took Ennis-Hill’s British heptathlon record in another gold-medal winning effort in the 2019 World Championships.

Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson claimed her first global title on this day in 2018, winning the pentathlon at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham.

The then 25-year-old finished 50 points ahead of Austria’s Ivona Dadic and 113 in front of Cuba’s Yorgelis Rodriguez to take victory with 4750 points.

It ended a series of disappointments in heptathlon after she finished fifth at the 2017 World Championships in London, sixth at the Rio 2016 Olympics and 28th at the World Championships in Beijing the year before that.

Johnson-Thompson said: “I am so happy. I have a busy year and this gives me confidence and belief going to the Commonwealth Games (in Gold Coast that April) that I can compete at a certain level and come away with a medal and not screw it up.

“It means the world. It is something I have been trying to do since 2012 when I stepped onto the international scene.

“I was disappointed last year I wasn’t able to do it outdoors.

“After the last couple of years I have had, there was no pressure on me because I have not done too well.

“I am just happy that I can kick start this year as a gold medallist.”

Johnson-Thompson went on in 2018 to claim gold for England at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and silver at the European Championships in Berlin.

She has since secured world heptathlon titles in 2019 in Doha and 2023 in Budapest, while she retained her Commonwealth title in Birmingham in 2022.

England goalkeeper Mary Earps leads the six nominees to succeed team-mate Beth Mead for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

The 30-year-old goalkeeper helped England reach the Women’s World Cup final back in August before eventually losing out 1-0 to winners Spain in the final, but Earps was awarded the Golden Glove by keeping three clean sheets throughout the tournament.

The Manchester United stopper is currently the bookmakers runaway favourite to take the award after picking up further accolades, including England Women player of the year, was fifth in the voting for the 2023 Ballon d’Or Feminin award – the highest-ever ranking for a goalkeeper – while keeping a Super League record 14 clean sheets for United last season.

Earps is joined on the shortlist by retired cricketer Stuart Broad, former jockey Frankie Dettori, athlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, wheelchair tennis player Alfie Hewett and golfer Rory McIlroy.

Broad will be aiming to become the first cricketer to win the award since 2019 when Ben Stokes collected the award.

He became England’s second leading Test wicket taker with 604 before announcing his retirement on the penultimate day of the fifth and final Ashes Test and helping them draw the series against Australia at the Oval by taking a wicket with his final ball bowled and a six with his last with the bat.

Liverpool-born heptathlete Johnson-Thompson came back from injury to win her second world title in Budapest this year.

Her build-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was undermined by an Achilles injury which forced her to pull out but the 30-year-old bounced back with a Commonwealth Games title in Birmingham last year and then conquered the world again in Budapest.

Three-time British flat racing champion jockey Dettori triumphed in two British classics this year, winning the 2000 Guineas on Chaldean and the Oaks on Soul Sister and is joined on the list by wheelchair tennis player Hewett and world number two in golf McIlroy.

The winner of the public vote will be announced on the night of the live show on Tuesday, December 19.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson has won a brilliant heptathlon gold at the World Championships in Budapest.

The 30-year-old has endured a tough four years, punctuated by injury and frustration, since her world title win in Doha four years ago.

Here, the PA news agency looks at her road to recovery.

Covid delays the Olympics

Coming off the back of her 2019 world title, Johnson-Thompson was ready for another showdown with Nafi Thiam. The Belgian won Olympic gold in Rio but was defeated by KJT in Doha as the Brit set four personal bests.

She was in the form of her life and their battle was poised to be one of the best of the Games – only for the Covid pandemic to strike and the Olympics were postponed for 12 months.

Achilles rupture threatens her career

Johnson-Thompson suffered a serious Achilles injury in December 2020 which left her fearing for her career. Just eight months ahead of the Olympics it left her hopes of making Tokyo in doubt.

“Covid, my Achilles injury and then the injury in Tokyo were three major things which made it feel like the universe was telling me to stop,” she said.

Heartbreak in Tokyo

The 30-year-old recovered in time to make the delayed Olympics in Japan and was fifth going into the final event on day one, the 200m. Yet she was struck by another massive blow when she injured her right calf with around 50 metres left.

She refused a wheelchair and limped to the finish – stating she started her year in a wheelchair and did not want to end it in one.

The defending champion

Johnson-Thompson arrived at the Worlds in Oregon last year as the defending champion but there was never any expectation she would retain the title. She was sixth after day one, trailing Thiam by over 300 points, despite a gutsy effort.

A frustrating 6.28m in the long jump dropped her to seventh while she was unable to improve her place in the javelin and 800m to ultimately finish eighth.

Commonwealth title defence

Having pulled out of the pentathlon at the World Athletics Indoor Championships earlier in the year, Johnson-Thompson came from Eugene straight to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Her 2018 Gold Coast victory was the start of her trajectory and foundations for her Doha victory.

Despite her previous injury problems she was still expected to retain the crown and she did with a measured performance to finish 144 points ahead of Northern Ireland’s Kate O’Connor.

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.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson is ready to return to her best and believes the world heptathlon title is up for grabs.

The 2019 champion is eyeing the podium at the World Championships after last year’s winner Nafi Thiam pulled out.

Belgium’s Thiam, the double Olympic champion, is sidelined with an Achilles issue as she targets the treble at next year’s Games in Paris.

The USA’s Anna Hall, third in Eugene last year, is favourite for the crown in Hungary but Johnson-Thompson feels the competition is wide open.

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“Before Thiam dropped out, I felt like it was very much like a head-to-head between Thiam and Anna Hall and now I don’t know what it’s going to take to win a medal,” she said, ahead of the start of the heptathlon in Budapest on Saturday.

“I don’t know what it’s going to take to win. So that’s why I feel like it’s open. I could name five people who could finish between first, second and third.

“Sometimes the heptathlon can be a two-person race and then everyone else is fighting for the bronze, I feel like this year is quite open and I don’t know where it’s going to go.

“You never know. I’ve always been worried that 2019 was my peak, because then Covid happened and I had my Achilles rupture and the momentum I was building towards my peak got short changed and cut off.

“I feel like anybody who’s won a major championship has the ability to say ‘I’ve done it before therefore, it can be done again’. I feel like that, even though I can’t remember it.

“Whenever I look back at videos, or see images of Doha, it just takes me back to that place in time and the frame of mind I was in.

“So it’s always a positive thing to look back. What has been done before can be done again. That’s the type of frame of mind I get myself into when I see those images.

“I just like to prove myself right. I feel like if I let other people’s opinions in, I wouldn’t be sitting here saying that I’m in good shape and excited about the outcome, because I would have instead believed that I might as well give up or my body isn’t right for it.

“My goal is a medal and I think I can score what it takes to get on the rostrum but you never know whether the event is going to go off or if it’s going to be quite subdued.

“I’m trying to predict the future but I can’t. I feel like that’s why I’m just chilled because you’re just never going to know.”

Johnson-Thompson beat Thiam to win world gold in Doha four years ago before her Achilles rupture in late 2020.

She recovered to make the Tokyo Olympics only to suffer a calf injury in the 200m and withdraw. She finished eighth at last year’s World Championships – having split with coach Petros Kyprianou weeks before after only five months in Florida.

A successful defence of her Commonwealth Games title in Birmingham put her back on the podium and she is now content in Hungary.

“This one feels different in the way that I feel like I’m the calmest I’ve ever been going into it,” said the 30-year-old, now based in the UK under Aston Moore.

“In Doha it was exciting and I had a big battle but with this one I feel completely calm and full of experience.

“I’ve done it so many times now and it never gets any easier but you can approach it in a different manner. I feel like this one, I’m just going to put all my experience into it and see where it gets me.

“It’s always a stepping stone to next year, because ultimately the main goal of my career is to get an Olympic medal.

“This is maybe my last heptathlon before Paris – I don’t know if I’m going to do another one. So it’s like a full on dress rehearsal.”

Katarina Johnson-Thompson marked her competitive return to heptathlon with a second-place finish at the Hypomeeting in Gotzis, Austria.

Johnson-Thompson, in her first outing since winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in August last year, finished runner-up to American Anna Hall, who topped the podium with a personal-best 6,988 points.

However, the 30-year-old, who has endured an injury-hit past couple of years, recorded a tally of 6,556 points, marking the Liverpudlian’s best haul since winning the world title in 2019.

A throw of 13.92 metres represented a lifetime best in the shot put while her 1.89m high jump was her highest clearance in four years.

Fellow Briton Jade O’Dowda finished 10th in the two-day meet.