The latter pair became involved in a thrilling high jump battle, both clearing 1.98m – a British record for Johnson-Thompson and a personal best for Thiam to move 22 and 10 points clear of Ennis-Hill respectively.
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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – The prospect of a samba-style Super Saturday is still alive for Britain.
Standing in the way of Ennis-Hill’s mammoth task is world indoor pentathlon champion Theisen-Eaton, who was victorious by some distance at the esteemed Gotzis Hypo-Meeting in May where she faced all likely Olympic contenders minus the defending champ, and fellow Briton Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who looked to have worked her way into ominously good form at the Anniversary Games.
Heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill started her first day of the seven-discipline event and Greg Rutherfold had to qualify for the long jump on Friday, so they could join 10,000-meter champion Farah in a bid for another three-gold-in-one-evening bash for British athletes late Saturday.
Ennis-Hill’s association with the dogs has become nationally recognised since she began appearing on television adverts with one trailing on a lead behind her, past billboards which capture her image.
Rimmer is chasing a final place and said: “I’ve never got to a global final and I think if I finish my career without that happening it would be a waste of talent”.
“I see it as a massive challenge for me”.
Since his gold in London in 2012, he has clinched a Grand Slam of titles – Olympic, world, Commonwealth and European – coming to Rio.
She added: “I’ve been in athletics for so long and it is a great sport”. There are some wonderful performances, inspiring in so many ways and for me, I want the world to see how unbelievable our athletics is.
“He’s aware of everything now, he knows what mummy does, he tries to copy what I do”.
Johnson-Thompson was second in heat three of four, only nine hundredths short of her personal best.
But Katarina, 23, took the overall lead, setting a new British high jump record of 1.98m. This time around she wants to retain her title for her two-year-old son, Reggie, who will be watching back home in Sheffield.
“Every time I ran, he was going, “Mummy, go, go, go”.
Along with pals Carl Hester, Fiona Bigwood and Spencer Wilton, she claimed a silver medal in the team event and now stands shoulder to shoulder with Victoria Pendleton.
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“Mentally, I’ve got to be 100 per cent focused”, said Ennis-Hill, who fired out a warning of her own by running her second fastest time ever in the 100 metres hurdles – 12.76 seconds – last month. I’ve just got to hold everything together and know that I’ve done this before and I can do it again.
