The 30-year-old star English athlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson brought the first gold for Great Britain & Northern Ireland in the World Athletics Championships 2023 (Budapest, Hungary) after winning the women’s heptathlon contest.
What is the Heptathlon?
Heptathlon is a combined track and field events contest with seven different events. These events are as follows:
100 Metres Hurdles (track event)
High Jump (field event)
Shot Put (field event)
200 Metres (track event)
Long Jump (field event)
Javelin Throw (field event)
800 Metres (track event)
World Athletics Championships 2023: Women’s Heptathlon – The Competition
On the second day of the World Athletics Championships 2023 (20 August), the 2019 World Championships gold medallist Katarina Johnson-Thompson clinched the gold medal by the narrowest margin in World Championships history.
It was the 20-point difference between Johnson-Thompson (6740 points) and the silver medallist USA athlete Anna Hall (6720 points). After earning a bronze medal in the 2022 edition, Hall impressed in the Budapest event.
Hall (3998 points) was leading the contest at the end of the opening day, while Johnson-Thompson had a slow start before climbing to second place (3905 points) in the final moment of the opening day. The English athlete earned the lead in the first event of the second day and never looked back since then.
After two dramatic gold medal falls on the opening day, Anouk Vetter finally opened a Dutch medal account in the World Athletics Championships 2023 with a bronze medal (6501 points).
Before the final event (800m), Johnson-Thompson (5710 points), Hall (5667 points), and Vetter (5684 points) all three athletes were battling for the gold medal with neck-to-neck points. But Johnson-Thompson ultimately won the battle closely from Hall, while Vetter couldn’t chase them in the final event.
World Athletics Championships 2023: Women’s Heptathlon (Final Status)
Final Rank | Athlete | Country | Final Points |
1 | Katarina Johnson-Thompson | Great Britain & Northern Ireland | 6740 |
2 | Anna Hall | United States | 6720 |
3 | Anouk Vetter | Netherlands | 6501 |
4 | Xénia Krizsán | Hungary | 6479 |
5 | Emma Oosterwegel | Netherlands | 6464 |
6 | Noor Vidts | Belgium | 6450 |
7 | Sophie Weißenberg | Germany | 6438 |
8 | Chari Hawkins | United States | 6366 |
9 | Saga Vanninen | Finland | 6289 |
10 | Rita Nemes | Hungary | 6232 |
Check the Women’s Heptathlon points’ breakdown in this link
What did Katarina Johnson-Thompson say?
Johnson-Thompson quoted as per the official Olympics website, "This has been one of the most gruelling heptathlons I've ever done. The delayed start yesterday, the long day, then I got about three hours of sleep last night. But all these girls deserve such huge respect."
