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Even after two energy-sapping days, seven thrilling events, and one almighty final heave, Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson sat slumped on the National Stadium track not knowing whether she had won a world championship heptathlon bronze.
As she looked at the giant scoreboard and waited, the American Anna Hall’s name came up first. Gold with 6,988 points. Then Ireland’s Kate O’Connor, with a national record of 6,714pts for silver.
There was a further wait for the third name to appear, and when it did her heart sank. Taliyah Brooks, USA, 6,581 points, bronze. But then it began to beat with joy again. Almost instantaneously, Johnson-Thompson’s name came up with 6,581 points next to it, along with a bronze medal symbol. For the first time anyone could remember at a global heptathlon there had been a tie.
“I thought that I wasn’t going to get it because my name was underneath hers on the scoreboard,” Johnson-Thompson said after receiving her 12th major medal. “I’ve never seen it before. And I’m not questioning it.
“I didn’t celebrate until they actually put the medal around my neck because I was thinking: ‘What the hell was that?’ Exactly the same points, you couldn’t write it. And I’m so happy that neither of us lost by a point because that would have been horrendous.”
It all came down to the final event, the 800m. Johnson-Thompson, who had started day two in third, had slipped to fourth behind Brooks after a 6.42m long jump and a modest javelin of 41.94m. It left her facing a simple equation: run six seconds quicker than Brooks and the bronze would be hers.
There was not much between them on the first 400m, but Johnson-Thompson extended her lead on the second lap to finish in 2min 07.38sec. Brooks then battled home in 2:13.17, a personal best. There was a nervous wait. Scoring tables were consulted. Numbers crunched. And then came unbridled joy.
“I didn’t know how far she was behind and I didn’t want to look,” said Johnson-Thompson. “I just thought: ‘Wait until the official result has come.’ And then when it did, I still didn’t have any answers.”
Afterwards the pair exchanged a few words. “We just couldn’t believe it,” the 32-year-old said. “We chat a lot up there. It’s like we were all drunk at the end of it.”
She was understandably emotional, given that four years ago at the Tokyo Olympics she tore her calf during the 200m and hobbled off the track on crutches. “I’ve been through it in this stadium,” she said. “It holds so much emotion and to finish the 200m meant the world, and to finish with a medal this time around I can’t put into words the full circle moment I’ve just been through. It just feels like I’ve rewritten a better story about this city.”
But it was a story that was four years in the making. Even when she came to the track last week, to support her training partner Jazmin Sawyers, it brought back painful memories. “I literally started crying straight away,” she said. “It instantly just hit me. It’s the same track where the big trauma happened in my life.
“I have no words. I’m still in a bit of disbelief. It really does mean the world to me.”
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But there was no joy for another British medal hope, Max Burgin, in a stacked men’s 800m final that turned into one of the fastest in history. With the World Athletics president, Sebastian Coe, and the world record holder, David Rudisha, watching on, the Olympic champion, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, just held off the fast finishing Djemal Sedjati of Algeria to take gold in a championship record 1min 41:86sec.
Sedjati was just 0.04 back, while Canada’s Marco Arop was third in 1:41.95. Ireland’s Cian McPhillips swooped from the gods to finish fourth, while Burgin was sixth in a race where all eight finalists finished in under 1:42.80.
Elsewhere it was a bad night for Britain’s relay squads, with the women’s 4x400m team finishing last in their heat, the men’s 4x100m quartet dropping the baton, and the men’s 4x400m team just sneaking into the Sunday’s final.
Only Britain’s women’s 4x100m team looked up to their usual high standards and the stark reality is that the relay squads, which gave Britain a clean sweep of five medals at the Paris Olympics, look like providing only one in Tokyo.
The British 400m runner Victoria Ohuruogu admitted that finishing last was a “huge disappointment” but added: “We gave everything we had. I don’t want to make excuses but it’s been a long championships.”
However the listless performance led to justifiable criticism from the 2012 Olympic men’s long jump champion, Greg Rutherford. “I’m all for building everybody up and giving them a fair chance,” he told the BBC. “That’s not good enough. A lot of money is put into that programme. You can’t be coming last in your heat at a world championships.”
