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Christian Malcolm optimistic over Katarina Johnson-Thompson fitness for Tokyo

Christian Malcolm optimistic over Katarina Johnson-Thompson fitness for Tokyo
© Reuters
The world heptathlon champion suffered a serious Achilles injury last year.

UK Athletics head coach Christian Malcolm has backed Katarina Johnson-Thompson to win her Olympics fitness battle.

The world heptathlon champion has been included in Team GB's squad for the Tokyo Games, subject to overcoming her injury worries.

Johnson-Thompson suffered a serious Achilles injury at the end of last year and, while she is back in training, is yet to compete.

She is due to do two events – one of them being the high jump – at her home track in Montpellier next month and Malcolm expects her to prove her fitness.

Malcolm said: "Yeah. She has been back for several weeks, months, now training so she will be doing a competition within the next week or so. That's when she will be able to prove her fitness.

"She is in a really good space. I did speak to her this morning and she is really happy with her progression, training and where she is at. She is really comfortable.

Muller Indoor Grand Prix – Emirates Arena
Katarina Johnson-Thompson is returning to fitness (Ian Rutherford/PA)

"Mentally she seems in a really good space. The words she used were she was quite excited about being able to compete and being able to see where she is at. She is in good spirits.

"It's not as if she is taking someone else's spot so I won't be putting any pressure on her."

The 28-year-old won the world heptathlon title in Doha in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic forced the postponement of the Olympics last year.

Her fight for gold with defending champion Nafi Thiam was expected to be one of the battles of the Games and Malcolm insisted Johnson-Thompson can still challenge for medals despite fitness doubts.

He said: "With the heptathlon anything could happen. With someone like KJT, if she didn't think she would be there close to her best then she wouldn't put herself there.

"We will know more after her competitions and where she will be at in the next couple of weeks."

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rhs 2.0
Olympic medal table header
CountryGold medalSilver MedalBronze MedalT
JapanJapan124521
ChinaChina115824
United StatesUnited States1011930
Olympics flagOlympic Athletes from Russia78520
AustraliaAustralia61916
Great BritainGreat Britain56516
Today's Olympic highlights header

Wednesday's key events


ROWING
· Team GB have dominated the men's coxless fours in recent Olympics, winning on each of the last five occasions, but this year they face some stiff competition. They are one of four rowing medal contenders for Great Britain today (2.10am)

SWIMMING
· Katie Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus face off again in the women's 200m freestyle final, with the latter having already come out on top in the 400m event (2.41am)
· Team GB's Abbie Wood is among the medal contenders in the women's 200m individual medley final, while teammate Alicia Wilson will also take part. USA's Kate Douglass was the fastest qualifier, while world and Olympic record holder Katinka Hosszu is also involved (3.45am)
· Katie Ledecky could make it two golds in one morning as she goes into the 1500m freestyle final as heavy favourite, having broken the Olympic record in qualifying (3.54am)
· Team GB were by far the fastest qualifiers for the men's 4x200m freestyle relay final and will therefore be favourites for another gold in the pool (4.26am)

RUGBY SEVENS
· Team GB take on New Zealand in the first men's semi-final, having been beaten by reigning champions Fiji but then come from behind to overcome USA on day two (3am)
· The sevens gold medal match takes place at Tokyo Stadium, with the winner of Great Britain vs. New Zealand taking on either Argentina or Fiji (10am)

ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS
· Joe Fraser and James Hall compete for Team GB in the men's all-around final (11.15am-2.10pm)

CYCLING
· Anna Shackley will take part in the women's road time trial (from 3.30am)
· Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart have medal ambitions for Great Britain in the men's road time trial, although both will need to recover from the crash they suffered on Saturday (6am)

DIVING
· Jack Laugher bids to retain his men's 3m synchro diving title alongside new partner Daniel Goodfellow (7am)

EQUESTRIAN
· Charlotte Dujardin will look to add to her already legendary status with a third successive Olympic individual dressage title (9.30am-1.25pm)

> Today's schedule in full
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