13 August 2013

Katarina Johnson-Thompson (coach: Mike Holmes) finished fifth in the heptathlon at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow after completing her campaign in style with an 800m personal best of 2:07.64, her fourth lifetime best of the competition.

The 20 year old’s total score of 6449 was also an overall lifetime best by nearly 200 points and left her just 28 points short of the bronze medal position occupied by Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands.

She said: “I’m very happy with how I performed today. I got four personal bests from the long jump to finally getting over the 40m mark in the javelin, and it’s really weird because it’s the first time in the 800m that I’ve been competitively running instead of going for a time.”

In the final of the men’s 800m, Andrew Osagie (Craig Winrow) moved through the field to clinch fifth place on the line, running a season’s best 1:44.36 in the process. The 25 year old was satisfied with both his time and his competitiveness in the world final.

He said: “It’s a strange one actually as I had a smile on my face at the end because I ran another season’s best. That’s all I was aiming to do; run 100% and despite the fact that I came fifth it was quite close to a medal.”

Eilish McColgan (Liz McColgan) finished tenth in the 3,000m steeplechase with a time of 9:37.33, finishing strongly to gain a couple of places in the home straight. After an injury in the lead up to the championships, McColgan was delighted with how she performed in Moscow.

“I really can’t complain,” she said. “I knew I’d be tired considering the lack of running I’ve done and then I’ve just done two steeplechase races in the space of three days which is more than I could have asked for. If somebody said to me a couple of weeks ago that I’d have made the final and been tenth in the world I’d never have believed them.”

In the second of two semi-finals of the women’s 400m hurdles, Perri Shakes-Drayton (Chris Zah) overhauled American Lashinda Demus in the closing stages to win in a time of 53.92 and ensure that she should receive a good lane draw for Thursday’s final.

The 24 year old is looking forward to lining up in a world final for the first time. “I feel good,” she said. “As I’ve been saying all along, I have to go out in the final before anything and this is the first top level championships final that I’ve made. I just need to look after myself really. I’ve done the semi-final bit and now it’s just the last bit to compete well on the track.”

Eilidh Child (Malcolm Arnold) will join her team mate in the final after she ran a strong race attacking every hurdle to finish third in the first semi-final with a time of 54.32. In the same race, Meghan Beesley (Nick Dakin) set a new personal best of 54.97, just missing out on a place in the final.

Child was overjoyed to have reached the final, she said: “I’m delighted. I’m just so happy, I wanted it so much to make the final. I was really nervous tonight and wanted it a lot, to just come away and know I made that final I can sleep well tonight.”

Having broken her personal best at her first global championships, Beesley was delighted with her performance. She said: “I’m really happy with that; it’s my first time running under 55 seconds so it’s a big milestone. I’m just a bit disappointed because I was so close to coming fourth in that race. I think I came here thinking that if I got to semi-final I’d come away in the top 16 in the world which is all you can ask for in my first major championships.”

Hannah England (Bud Baldaro) qualified for the final of the 1500m with a composed run, being patient before exploiting a gap to come through into fifth place and cross the line in 4:06.80 for automatic qualification.

Afterwards, England said: “It definitely wasn’t easy, but then I didn’t think it would be. I knew I would have to run hard the whole way. A few gaps opened up and I did manage to surge through. I’m lucky that happened, I can’t rely on that but it did.”

There was disappointment for GB & NI in the men’s 400m hurdles semifinal. Defending champion Dai Greene (Arnold) was unable to rediscover his best form after injury and illness and finished fifth in his semi-final with a time of 49.25.

Greene admitted that he was feeling below his best going into the race, he said: “It was very lacklustre from the start, I was struggling to get the intensity up in the early stages of the race. When I was warming up I was really struggling to get to the hurdles on the right stride pattern which is usually a bad sign. The intensity levels are so difficult to get up, that’s what I’ve been missing in the last few weeks and it showed out there.”

Rhys Williams (Adrian Thomas) was also left disappointed after he ran a time of 49.29 for fourth in his semi-final, also missing out on a place in Thursday’s final. He said: “I’m gutted not to be in that final. I don’t know what went wrong, I feel I’ve run well really. The start went well and I can’t give you any excuse. Maybe when I reflect I’ll be able to take the positives away but I gave it my best shot.”

Sebastian Rodger (Stephen King) ran a time of 49.32, his second fastest time ever, but it was only enough for sixth place in the first semi-final. Nevertheless, the 22 year old enjoyed the experience of competing at his first senior championship.

Rodger said: “I think I’ve got mixed emotions really. It was such a high point yesterday before the semi-final and I knew yesterday that today was going to be my final, so I went out there, gave my best and worked hard. It has been an amazing experience to be fair.”

For full results from the afternoon session of day four in Moscow please go to: http://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-world-championships/14th-iaaf-world-championships-4873/timetable/byday

In tomorrow morning’s session, British record holder Sophie Hitchon (Tore Gustafsson) competes in qualification for the women’s hammer, Olympic champion Greg Rutherford attempts to qualify for the long jump final and Chris O’Hare (Steve Gulley) lines up in the heats of the men’s 1500m.

Watch tomorrow morning’s session live on BBC2 between 6.30-9.00am.

GB & NI finalists at the 2013 IAAF World Championships: