The Women’s Heptathlon shaped up perfectly earlier today as every athlete put up a competitive display, keeping the event wide open for the longest time. Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson, the Heptathlon World Champion, seemed poised for a podium finish if not a gold medal. 

However, horror struck the British athlete during her heat, which was the final heptathlon event of the day. Running the 200m Heat 1, Johnson-Thompson pulled up short just before the 100m stretch and viewers soon realised it was the Achilles that had failed her. 

Johnson-Thompson had been troubled by her Achilles tendon and it had acted up at the worst possible moment. The injury saw her out of the competition entirely, but this was not going to stop her from finishing the race. 

The Englishwoman refused medical assistance from the staff that had already arrived with a wheelchair and got up to her feet to finish the race. She limped along the way and was greeted by the other athletes at the finish line. 

Katarina Johnson-Thompson was disqualified for crossing lanes

After completing the race, Johnson-Thompson walked up to the exit by herself. Despite this heroic display, the World Champion was disqualified from the race. It was later revealed that the reason for this was that she crossed a lane while continuing the race, which is why her performance would not count.

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This was truly unfortunate, given that she went through so much, but the rules have to be unbiased. A similar occurrence took place in the men’s Decathlon 400m heats when World Champion Niklas Kaul (GER) pulled up short during the race. The German could not soldier through the pain of a pulled hamstring and fell to the tracks. He did not finish the race due to the extreme pain. 

Injuries truly spoiled the nights of two very gifted athletes and proved to be the differential in an athlete’s story. While many have recovered from career-threatening inures, some have been plagued by them at the wrong time, as was evident today with Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Niklas Kaul.

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