PARIS (Reuters) -Belgium's Nafissatou Thiam won her third successive Olympic women's heptathlon gold medal on Friday, producing a huge javelin throw to hold off Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson who battled to the silver.
Thiam, the first multi-event athlete in Olympic history to win three titles, scored 6,880 points, overtaking Johnson-Thompson in the javelin to move ahead of the Briton by 121 points going into the final 800m, which was the equivalent to an 8.6-second advantage.
Twice world champion Johnson-Thompson needed the 800 race of her life for gold and although she clocked a career best two minutes 4.90 seconds, it was only enough to finish with 6,844 points as the Belgian ran a career-best 2:10.62.
"I knew (Johnson-Thompson) was going to go for it because she had nothing to lose," Thiam said. "But I worked hard in the 800, I was confident. I tried to keep her in my vision the whole time and never let go. I'm very proud of myself for being able to achieve that dream."
Belgium's Noor Vidts claimed bronze with a score of 6,707.
Thiam trailed the 31-year-old Johnson-Thompson by 45 points before she unleashed a huge 54.04 metres javelin throw in the penultimate event.
Johnson-Thompson had been the overnight leader of the seven-discipline event after getting off to a dream start with a big shot put personal best and 1.92m in the high jump.
She struggled, however, in Friday's long jump event, aborting her first effort at take-off and giving up a precious 34cm on take-off on her second before posting 6.40m on her third.
Thiam, whose career best javelin is some 13 metres better than her British rival's, hurled the spear a season's best 54.04m as Johnson-Thompson could only manage 45.49.
Johnson-Thompson's medal was her first in four Olympics after finishing 13th in London in 2012, suffering major disappointment in finishing sixth in 2016 despite a huge high jump.
She rebounded to win the 2019 world championships before suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, where she was in medal position before tearing her calf in the 200m, the final event of the opening day.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing, editing by Ed Osmond)
