By Lori Ewing
BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Anna Hall of the United States was the leader after Day 1 of the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships on Saturday, while Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson was second in her continued quest to rediscover her world-beating form after rupturing her Achilles tendon.
Hall finished the day with 3,998 points, while Johnson-Thompson, the 2019 world champion, scored 3,905 and American Chari Hawkins was third with 3,900.
It has been a tough climb back up the heptathlon rankings for Johnson-Thompson, who ruptured her Achilles in 2020 and then tore a calf muscle eight months before the Tokyo Olympics.
Sitting fifth after a shaky shot put, the 30-year-old ran the fastest 200 of 23.48 seconds – still well off her personal best of 22.79 – to climb three spots. She cleared 1.86 metres in the high jump, second-best on the day.
Hall, the reigning world bronze medallist, was second in the 100-metre hurdles, second in the 200 and third in the shot put.
The field was missing reigning world and Olympic champion Nafi Thiam, who withdrew from the Belgium championships earlier in the month with an Achilles injury.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
