Defending champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson sits third with two heptathlon events remaining at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
The 2024 Olympic silver medallist has 4874 points heading into Saturday evening’s javelin throw and 800 metre race in a field led by American pair Anna Hall, on 5041 points, and Taliyah Brooks, with 4930.
Johnson-Thompson holds a 50-point advantage over Ireland’s fourth-placed challenger Kate O’Connor after the morning session’s long jump, where the Englishwoman was third-best with a 6.42m effort behind Brooks and British compatriot Jade O’Dowda.
Brooks reached a personal-best 6.79m, 30cm more than O’Dowda, who currently sits sixth after the Netherlands’ Sofie Dokter. Abigail Pawlett, Great Britain’s third entrant, is 15th.
Nafi Thiam, who beat Johnson-Thompson to Olympic gold in Paris last summer, has – according to reports in her home country of Belgium – decided to withdraw from the competition, where she had been sitting eighth.
Thiam’s pre-championship build-up had been marred by a row with her federation.
She told Belgian newspaper DH Les Sports+: “It was difficult from the beginning. I tried to fight, to go through these difficulties, but clearly it does not follow. I have trouble explaining it myself.
“Clearly my body is not happy. I don’t want to do anything stupid, because I think that now, finishing would be for the principle.”
Great Britain secured their second medal of the 2025 championships on Friday, when Amy Hunt stormed to 200m silver, adding to Jake Wightman’s second-place finish in the men’s 1500m final.
They could win medals in up to three events on the penultimate evening of the World Championships.
Hannah Nuttall will start the women’s 5000m final at 1329BST before Max Burgin goes for men’s 800m gold in his final, scheduled to start at 1422BST.
