On this day in 2015 – Katarina Johnson-Thompson sets British pentathlon record

Katarina Johnson-Thompson set a new British pentathlon record and claimed the first major title of her career at the European Indoor Championships, on this day in 2015.

Johnson-Thompson was in outstanding form at Prague’s 02 Arena, amassing 5,000 points to defeat the field and best Jessica Ennis-Hill’s previous high of 4,965.

The then 22-year-old, delivering on her long-known potential, came agonisingly close to an even bigger prize as she came within a whisker of the world record.

Johnson-Thompson won the 60 metre hurdles with a personal best and set championship records in the high jump and long jump to put the landmark within her sights.

Needing to clock 2mins 11.86secs over 800m to break the world record, Johnson-Thompson crossed the line in 2:12.78 and admitted her own high hopes left a tinge of frustration on her big day.

“I was gutted, instant regret,” said Johnson-Thompson, who became only the second athlete to score 5,000 points in the pentathlon as she finished just 13 points away from Ukrainian Natallia Dobrynska’s record.

“I’ve been tearing my brains out these last couple of weeks thinking I could get it, so to come so close, yeah I’m disappointed.

“If someone had said to me, ‘You’ve got 5000 points and a gold medal’, at the beginning of the day I would have taken it, but because everything was going so well and I was so close, I think that’s what made me so sad. I could have got it if I had pushed a little bit more.”

Ennis-Hill, watching from home having stepped away from the sport to start a family, congratulated her Team GB team-mate on Twitter, saying: “Well done Kat!! Amazing performance! Sad to see my record go but couldn’t have gone to a more deserving athlete!”

Johnson-Thompson went on to eclipse her compatriot once again when she took Ennis-Hill’s British heptathlon record in another gold-medal winning effort in the 2019 World Championships.