Johnson-Thompson climbs to fifth

Katarina Johnson-Thompson is the world junior long jump champion
13 August 2013

Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Great Britain's heptathlon hope in the absence of the injured Jessica Ennis-Hill, enjoyed a superb start to the second morning of competition at the World Championships with personal bests in the long jump and javelin.

The 20-year-old, who is the world junior long jump champion, leapt 6.56m in that event and, even more impressively, recorded a distance of 40.86m in the javelin, more than two metres further than she has thrown before, lifting her to fifth place on 5450 points.

It meant that, with only the 800m to come tonight, the Liverpool athlete, whose target had been a top-eight finish, is just 42 points off the medals.

She also has a far superior 800m personal best to Holland's Dafne Schippers, currently third, and France's Antoinette Nana Djimou in fourth, but Germany's Claudia Rath (sixth) is on paper likely to edge her out in the fight for bronze.

Johnson-Thompson goes into the final event needing to finish within 0.3secs of Rath, just six points behind her, to get on the podium, but the German's best is more than two seconds faster than the Briton's.

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