Katarina Johnson-Thompson MBE could be looking ahead to another medal at the 2026 European Athletics Championship after success at the World Championships.
Johnson-Thompson won bronze for her impressive performance in the Heptathlon in Tokyo last month.
If she is to compete in Birmingham next year, the Scouser could write another chapter in a career dominated by numbers.
She tied third place with USA’s Taliyah Brooks last month as they both finished the competition on 6581 points.
Since her last international competition, the heptathlete’s javelin throw distance shortened by 3.58 metres, which may have been the catalyst to her missing out on Silver.
Johnson-Thompson may come up against Kate O’Connor again in Europe and with the Irish athletes’ strong throw, KJT will be looking to make improvements to that aspect of her heptathlon.
This was KJT’s return to Tokyo after her near career-ending injury in the Japanese capital four years prior.
She has been competing on the international stage since the 2012, with her first senior breakthrough at the London Olympics.
Since then, the Woolton-born athlete led a remarkable career, winning medals in World Championships, Commonwealth Games and the Olympics.
Throughout the 13 years, there have been many highs, one of which was achieving the Heptathlon British record at the 2019 World Championships with an overall score of 6981.
Like many other athletes, KJT has also experienced lows, which would undoubtably include her ‘DNF’ endings to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and the 2024 European Championships.
It has been a long road towards achieving a lifetime best in the shot put and 800m race, which she didn’t achieve until last year at the Paris Olympic Games.
These scores led her to her first ever Olympic medal, winning Silver.
Over the years, Johnson-Thompson has averaged a score of 12.73 metres in the shot put over her entire senior career, and finally threw over 14 metres last year, with a score of 14.44.
While there are no talks of retirement for Johnson-Thompson yet, when the time comes her career will leave behind great memories for British athletics fans as an MBE and British heptathlon record holder.
