BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRO-BRITISH " KATARINA JOHNSON-THOMPSON " IS AN ENGLISH TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETE SPECIALIZING IN THE HEPTATHLON : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

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Katarina Johnson-Thompson

Katarina Johnson-Thompson

Katarina Johnson-Thompson after the 2012 Olympics
Personal information
Born	9 January 1993 (age 22) Woolton, Liverpool, England
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	68 kg (10 st 10 lb)
Sport
Country	England
Club	Liverpool Harriers
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	Heptathlon 6,682 points
Medal record[hide] Competitor for  Great Britain Women's athletics World Indoor Championships 2014 Sopot Long jump European Indoor Championships 2015 Prague Pentathlon European U23 Championships 2013 Tampere Heptathlon World Junior Championships 2012 Barcelona Long jump World Youth Championships 2009 Brixen Heptathlon

Katarina Mary Johnson-Thompson (born 9 January 1993) is an English track and field athlete specialising in the heptathlon. She represented Great Britain in the heptathlon at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, finishing 15th, then finished fifth at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow. In the Long jump, she is the 2012 World Junior champion and the 2014 World Indoor silver medallist. In 2015, she became the European Indoor champion in the pentathlon with a British record of 5000 points. She also holds the British high jump record, with a height of 1.97 m in 2015, and the British indoor long jump record, with a distance of 6.93m.

Early life

Born in Woolton, Liverpool,^[1] her father Ricardo is Bahamian.^[2] She attended St Julie's Catholic High School in Woolton and John Moores University in Liverpool.^[3][4]

Career

Johnson-Thompson represents Liverpool Harriers and is coached by Mike Holmes.^[1] Her development was in part funded by theWells Sports Foundation set up by Barrie Wells, which gave her access to the foundation's patron, Jessica Ennis (now Jessica Ennis-Hill).

At the 2009 World Youth Championships in Athletics in Brixen, Italy, she won the gold medal in the heptathlon.^[4] She missed most of the 2010 athletics season suffering from patellar tendinopathy, also known as jumper's knee.^[5][

Johnson-Thompson broke Jessica Ennis' British junior record at the Multistars competition held in Desenzano del Garda, Italy in May 2012.^[7] Her score of 6007 points was enough to take third position at the event behind Sofía Ifadídou of Greece and French athleteBlandine Maisonnier.^[8] The score also meant she had surpassed the 'B' qualifying standard for the 2012 Olympics, however it fell short of the 6,150 points 'A' standard.^[7]

In June 2012 Johnson-Thompson achieved the 'A' qualifying standard for the 2012 Olympics by scoring a new personal best of 6,248 points at the TNT – Fortuna Meeting held in the Sletiště Stadium, Kladno, Czech Republic. At the meeting she set six new personal bests across the seven events to beat her previous best score by 241 points.^[9]

At the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics held in Barcelona, Spain, Johnson-Thompson chose not to compete in the full heptathlon competition to save herself for the Olympics; instead she took part in the long jump—winning a gold medal with a jump of 6.81 metres—and the 100 metres hurdles.^[10]

Johnson-Thompson competed for Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the women's heptathlon alongside compatriotsJessica Ennis and Louise Hazel at the Olympic Stadium on 3–4 August 2012. She finished in 15th place with a score of 6267.^[11]

In early April 2012, alongside Tiffany Porter and Yamile Aldama, she was nominated for "European Athlete of the Month" for March.^[12] In September, Johnson-Thompson was nominated for the "European Athletics Rising Star award".^[13] In October, she won the "Lillian Board Memorial Award" (for junior women) at the 2012 British Athletics Writers' Association Awards.^[14]

In the 2013 IAAF World Championships heptathlon, Katarina Johnson-Thompson finished in 5th place. After a first day which left her in 5th place, with a PB in the 200m, she had an excellent second day with PB's in the Long Jump, Javelin and the 800m. However she admitted afterwards that she wished she had set her target of finishing in the Top 8 with more ambition, having finished just 28 points away from bronze medallist Dafne Schippers. ^[15] [16]

On 11 July 2014, Johnson-Thompson set a new long jump personal best of 6.92m at the Glasgow Diamond League meeting, taking her to number 2 on the British all-time list for the event.^[17] Johnson-Thompson won gold at the 2014 edition of the prestigious heptathlon Hypo-Meeting in Götzis^[18] with a world leading personal best score of 6682 but missed the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships after suffering a foot injury.^[19]

Johnson-Thompson set a new British high jump record with a height of 1.97 metres at the British Indoor Championships in Sheffield on 14 February 2015,^[20] surpassing her previous record of 1.96 metres set on 8 February 2014.^[21] Prior to Johnson-Thompson, Debbie Marti's 1.95 metre jump had held the record since 1997.

On 21 February 2015, Johnson-Thompson set a new indoor British long jump record with a distance of 6.93 m at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix.^[22]

In August 2015, Johnson-Thompson finished in 28th place in the heptahlon at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing after three foul jumps in the long jump. She had been lying in second place to Jessica Ennis-Hill after the first day of events.^[23]

International competitions

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing  Great Britain
2009	World Youth Championships	Brixen, Italy	1st	Heptathlon	5750 pts[24]
	European Junior Championships	Novi Sad, Serbia	8th	Heptathlon	5375
2011	European Junior Championships	Tallinn, Estonia	6th	Heptathlon	5787
2012	World Junior Championships	Barcelona, Spain	1st	Long jump	6.81 m
	Olympic Games	London, United Kingdom	15th	Heptathlon	6267 pts
2013	European U23 Championships	Tampere, Finland	1st	Heptathlon	6215 pts
	World Championships	Moscow, Russia	5th	Heptathlon	6449 pts
2014	World Indoor Championships	Sopot, Poland	2nd	Long jump	6.81 m
2015	European Indoor Championships	Prague, Czech Republic	1st	Pentathlon	5000 pts
	World Championships	Beijing, China	28th	Heptathlon	5039 pts
			11th	Long jump	6.63m

Detailed results

Competition	100 m hurdles	High jump	Shot put	200 metres	Long jump	Javelin	800 metres	Heptathlon[25]
2012 Olympic Games	13.48 sec	1.89 m (PB)	11.32 m	23.73 sec	6.19 m	38.37 m	2:10:76 min	6267 pts NJR
2013 World Championships	13.49	1.83 m	11.52 m	23.37 sec	6.56 m (PB)	40.86 m (PB)	2:07:64 min (PB)	6449 pts PB
2015 World Championships	13.37 (PB)	1.89 m	12.47 m (PB)	23.08 sec (PB)	-	39.52 m	2:50:73 min	5039 pts

Personal bests

Outdoors

• 200 metres – 22.89 (2014)
• 800 metres – 2:07.64 (2013)
• 100 metres hurdles – 13.37 (2015)
• High jump – 1.90 m (2014)
• Long jump – 6.92 m (2014)
• Shot put – 12.47 m (2015)
• Javelin throw – 41.44 m (2014)
• Heptathlon – 6682 pts (2014)

Indoors

• 60 metres – 7.50 (2014)
• 800 metres – 2:12.24(2015)
• 60 metres hurdles – 8.18 (2015)
• High jump – 1.97 m (2015) NRi
• Long jump – 6.93 m (2015) NRi
• Shot put – 12.49 m (2014)
• Indoor pentathlon – 5000 pts (2015) NRi