Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson clinched a second heptathlon world championship title on Sunday in Budapest, resisting a furious 800m from American Anna Hall, in silver.
30-year-old “KJT” has 6,740 points, only 20 more than Hall. Dutch Anouk Vetter took bronze with 6,501 points.
Johnson-Thompson, already titled in 2019 in Doha, marks her return to the top after a ruptured Achilles tendon in 2020, then a withdrawal from the Tokyo Olympics due to a calf tear.
In 2022, she only took 8th place at the Worlds in Eugene (United States), won by the Belgian Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam, injured and therefore absent in Hungary.
Hall, in bronze last year, gave it his all with a lightning-fast 2:04.09 800m (the last of seven events contested over two days), but Johnson-Thompson outdid herself to cross the line in 2:05 sec 63 (record broken by almost a second and a half) and keep the advantage in the standings.
The French Auriana Lazraq-Khlass (24) took 12th place with 6,179 points (her record). Léonie Cambours is 15th (5.939) and Esther Turpin 18th (5.256) due to a zero at length.
