Katarina Johnson-Thompson misses out on Olympics gold medal by finest of margins as Team GB star settles for silver

KATARINA JOHNSON-THOMPSON narrowly missed out on heptathlon gold to defending champion Nafissatou Thiam but still took silver in Paris.

The Brit, 31, earned her first Olympic medal after an impressive 800 metres in the final event on Friday night.

PA

It comes after she finished 13th at London 2012, sixth in Rio and then had a DNF in Tokyo due to injury.

But she put in a stunning performance on day one of the heptathlon at the Stade de France to lead with three events to go.

And while she failed to stop Belgian Thiam from securing a third successive Olympic gold in the heptathlon, a silver medal will be much consolation.

Here is how it unfolded in the final three events on Friday.

LONG JUMP

PA

She placed fifth in the long jump – the first event on Friday[/caption]

Johnson-Thompson placed fifth in the long jump with a distance of 6.40 metres.

Thiam jumped one centimetre further to secure third place.

JAVELIN

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Historically Johnson-Thompson’s weakest event, she threw a season’s best of 45.49 metres for 11th place.

But Thiam showed her strength in this one as she threw 54.04 metres to take the event victory and extend her overall lead to 121 points.

800 METRES

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JJohnson-Thompson came second in the 800 metres but it was not enough to take gold[/caption]

Reuters

Johnson-Thompson needed to beat Thiam by around eight seconds in the 800 metres to overhaul her and claim gold in the final event.

And while she destroyed the Belgian in the two-lap race, she could only open up a six-second gap as she had to settle for silver after second place in the 800m.

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