European Championships 2018: Britain doubles medal count as Katarina Johnson-Thompson dreams of gold
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Britain doubled its medal count at the European Championships with Katarina Johnson-Thompson going to bed dreaming of gold.
Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake sealed silver in the 200metres while Holly Bradshaw added bronze in the pole vault.
But Johnson-Thompson’s performance was arguably the pick of the day, her best-ever first-day display in a heptathlon to give her an 87-point advantage ove the Olympic and world champion Nafi Thiam.
Mitchell-Blake had declared himself inspired to go for gold following the sprint double sealed by Dina Asher-Smith and Zharnel Hughes on Tuesday night.
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The Londoner clocked a season’s best 20.04seconds in a blanket finish, recording the same time as Alex Wilson and with just one hundredth of a second separating second, third and fourth.
But Ramil Guliyev was in a class of his own, the tattooed Turk winning in championship record 19.76 to add to his previous world title from London 2017 as Adam Gemili finished outside the medals in fifth.
Mitchell-Blake turned down the chance to take part in a lap of honour because, as he put it afterwards, “I didn’t win”.
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He added: “I came here to win, he’s world champion but it’s a final and you’ve just got to bring it out the bag. I’m a sore loser but it’s my first piece of senior silverware so I’ll take that into consideration.”
Bradshaw has long threatened to shine at a major championship outdoors but six years on from being a medal hopeful at London 2012 only to falter on the night, she added European bronze to earlier medals indoors at world and European level.
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The 26-year-old cleared 4.75metres at her third attempt to seal the bronze medal behind a Greek one-two headed by Katerina Stefanidi.
In the stadium in which Jessica Ennis-Hill won the first of her global titles, Johnson-Thompson, the athlete long tipped as her successor, ended the opening day of the European Championships heptathlon in the lead.
With Ennis-Hill passing judgement on the BBC, Johnson-Thompson produced an assured performance throughout the day for a score of 4,017 points to Thiam’s 3,930.
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Much, though, rests on day two with the long jump, habitually her best event but one in which she failed to record a distance at the 2015 World Championships, and the javelin, so often the creator of her downfall and many British multi-eventers before her.
On projected scores, Thiam should still win the gold while Johnson-Thompson knows she remains in contention for gold.
And there were no major blips throughout day one for her. She opened with a season’s best 13.34seconds in the 100metre hurdles, smiling as she crossed the line, and had the highest clearance of 1.91m in the subsequent high jump although some way shy of her own personal best.
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The question mark, though, hung over another of her throwing events, the shot put, but while her best of 13.09m may have been dwarfed by the likes of Thiam it was her furthest ever in a heptathlon competition.
She rounded off the day with a 22.89s in the 200m, the fastest by any athlete in a hepthatlon in the history of the European Championships.
“To get pretty much a season best in each event, I’m happy with that,” she said. “I’m aware that the competition has got a lot stronger and I needed to up my game but also not to be afraid of anybody because it’s my own performances and I have my own strengths.
“I’m definitely not going to give up easily. I’ll give a tough battle back for sure. I’m here to try and win for sure.”