Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s 800m PB earns World Championships heptathlon gold, Zharnel Hughes takes men’s 100m bronze

Katarina Johnson-Thompson won gold in the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, while Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes claimed 100m bronze.

Johnson-Thompson started the final event in gold-medal position after overtaking Anna Hall in the long jump, before moving to a 26-point lead when she delivered a personal best of 46.14m in the javelin.

Ahead of the second 800m, which included second-placed Anouk Vetter and Hall in third, 43 points back.

The 30-year-old added another gold to her 2019 victory, and she had roughly 2.5 seconds’ advantage over Hall with her points lead.

Victory will go some way to helping Johnson-Thompson overcome her disappointment at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago, when she pulled up with a calf injury having ruptured her Achilles during her preparation for the event in Japan.

This time it was Hall who may have been suffering with fitness problems, with strapping around her knee, shin and ankle.

Hall won the 800m as expected given her personal best in the event being 4.29 seconds better than that of Johnson-Thompson’s, and there were nervous moments for both athletes as they waited to see if the difference was enough to give the American the overall victory.

However it was Johnson-Thompson who succeeded, winning by 20 points, after she finished in 2:05.63, just under two seconds quicker than her previous best.

Later in the evening. Noah Lyles won the Men’s 100m final, and Hughes earned bronze.

The American was the fastest in the semi-finals with a time of 9.87 seconds, one-hundredth of a second quicker than Christian Coleman and three-hundredths of a second faster than Hughes.

Hughes arrived as the quickest man of 2023 but he would have to settle for bronze as he was judged to have taken the final spot on the podium in a photo finish, 1000th of a second clear of Oblique Seville.

Hughes’ bronze is Britain’s first men’s 100m World Championships medal since Darren Campbell, 20 years ago.

Second went to Botswana sprinter Letsile Tebogo. Tebogo, Hughes and fourth-placed Seville all finished with a time of 9.88s, with Lyle winning with a time of 9.83s.

In the men’s 10,000m, Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei broke clear as he approached the bell sounding the final lap, and his final circuit was a brutal 53 seconds to leave the chasing pack struggling.

His winning time of 27:51.42 earned him his third successive World Championships gold in the distance, with second place going to Daniel Simiu Ebenyo of Kenya, and bronze taken by Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega.