As day one of the Heptathlon comes to a close, Jessica Ennis-Hill now leads the pack in Rio, as the final standings of the combined events competition will be revealed tomorrow, when the medals are decided.
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The Briton’s personal best was 9.47 seconds better than Thiam’s but the new mother likes to measure her performances these days in terms of PBPBs – post-baby personal bests – and it always looked too big a gap.
Johnson-Thompson was second in heat three of four, only nine hundredths short of her personal best. Her British teammate, Ennis-Hill moved up to second overall, with a best throw of 13.86m. “She does, and I think that’s quite natural, but I don’t think it’s fair and I don’t think it’s sensible”.
While she will undoubtedly be disappointed not to have defended her title, Ennis-Hill’s name will remain etched in Olympic history following her triumphant 2012 win.
“I’m so proud of what I’ve achieved in the last few years”.
The star said her defining decision would be: “Just to go away and have time with my family and make a decision, but it’s just been incredible and I don’t want to cry like this”. Her parents, Alison Powell and Vinnie Ennis, got her into athletics at a young age and did everything necessary for her to be able to attain her goals.
Miller-Koch, who is a 2005 Columbus High School graduate, won the 800 in 2 minutes, 6.82 seconds to boost her to an 18th-place finish (6,213 points) out of the 31 athletes who competed.
The day started so promisingly for the British pair – and Johnson-Thompson in particular after she produced a British record clearance – and equal world heptathlon best – of 1.98m in the high jump.
It was the first Olympic heptathlon medal for Canadian athlete.
Not only is her trophy cabinet overflowing with Olympic and world championship medals and titles, but she has defied the opinion of many sports scientists by returning to the podium after giving birth to her son, Reggie, in 2014.
BBC One and BBC Two will be showing a range of events throughout the day and night.
Jessica Ennis-Hill looks set to retire from athletics in the wake of her heptathlon silver medal at the Rio Olympics after admitting she wants to leave the sport on a high.
Just 17 minutes later in the velodrome Great Britain’s Becky James won a silver medal in the women’s Keirin.
Theison-Eaton took the bronze and Johnson-Thompson was sixth.
Thiam emerged as a serious gold medal threat with a leading leap of 6.58m (1033 points), with Ennis-Hill staying in contention with a jump of 6.34m (956 points).
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“I made a conscious decision to wipe the slate clean and she starts from zero in every event”. More than anything because it could be the last time.
