Katarina Johnson-Thompson has been forced to withdraw from the European Athletics Championships in Rome due to injury, casting doubt on her preparations for the Olympic Games. The reigning heptathlon world champion pulled out after the first day of competition, having competed in the 100 metres hurdles, high jump and shot put.
Johnson-Thompson's coach Aston Moore said: 'Kat has developed a small niggle in her right leg and, in light of the proximity of the Olympic Games, we have chosen to bank what we have learned from this first day of competition and withdraw from the heptathlon. We don't want to risk losing any time from training which could be the result if she was to carry on competing with it for another day.'
The 31-year-old ran 13.66 seconds in the hurdles, more than half a second down on her personal best, before clearing 1.83 metres in the high jump to move up to fourth place. However, she could only manage a best of 12.44m in the shot put to slip to ninth, more than 300 points behind Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam.
Elsewhere, Jemma Reekie led team-mates Georgia Bell and Katie Snowden into the women's 1,500m final, while Elliot Giles and Thomas Randolph reached the men's 800m semi-finals. Morgan Lake also reached the women's high jump final, and Lawrence Okoye finished eighth in the discus final with a best of 63.48m.
The British quartet of Charlie Carvell, Hannah Kelly, Lewis Davey and Emily Newnham finished fifth in the final of the inaugural 4x400m mixed relay. Italy claimed the first medals of the championship with a one-two in the women's 20km walk, where Spain's Laura Garcia-Caro was overtaken on the line by Ukraine's Lyudmila Olyanovska after celebrating prematurely.
