No stranger to shut finishes, Johnson-Thompson was simply 36 factors away from gold finally summer time’s Olympics – equating to roughly a two-second distinction within the 800m.
Following a relative underperformance within the javelin, the place her better of 41.91m ranked sixteenth total, she was conscious her fortunes would as soon as once more come all the way down to the best margins within the two-lap finale.
With O’Connor’s excellent javelin private better of 53.06m guaranteeing the silver was hers to lose behind runaway chief Corridor, Brooks turned Johnson-Thompson’s precedence – conscious she had the superior private finest by 8.5 seconds.
Though she succeeded in distancing her rival within the closing phases, clocking two minutes 07.38 seconds, Brooks arrange a tense wait after holding on to cross the road 5.39 seconds later.
And so whereas Corridor and O’Connor might start their celebrations, Brooks and Johnson-Thompson had been initially left shrugging their shoulders – earlier than each had been ultimately awarded the prize they finally sought.
“It has been bodily and mentally exhausting. It is arduous to get your self up for the struggle once more figuring out how arduous it’s,” Johnson-Thompson stated.
“I stated final 12 months, so long as I am aggressive I will be right here. In 2016, I bear in mind I stated ‘that is the final time you will see me’.
“I say this once I win and I say it once I lose, give me a month off and I will be asking when coaching is.”
4-time world heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill stated on BBC TV: “You possibly can see the feelings have kicked in. I do not assume I’ve ever seen it the place the scores are the identical. The aid she should really feel have to be so large.
“All of us knew she would come and struggle within the 800m. She is going to all the time push herself out of her consolation zone. She fought and that is what you need, you need each athlete to come back out right here and carry out and that is what Katarina all the time does.”
Corridor topped the standings with 6,888 factors, forward of O’Connor who received Eire’s first world outside medal within the multi-events with 6,714.
