Katarina Johnson-Thompson is still struggling for confidence despite leading the Commonwealth Games heptathlon past the halfway stage.
Liverpool’s 2019 world champion enjoyed a consistent and crucially injury-free opening day of the defence of the title she won at Gold Coast 2018.
A lot has happened since then – that world title in Doha for one – but also a run of injuries and setbacks that have blighted her competing confidence.
“It’s hard to be confident when my results have happened over the last year,” said Johnson-Thompson, who is one of over 1,100 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering technology, science and medical support.
“ I’m confident in myself that I’m enjoying it and happy and am going to get solid performances out.
“That’s all I can do. I’m more confident post day one than I was going into it.”
She started sluggishly with 13.83 for fifth in the sprint hurdles that have become a strength.
But Johnson-Thompson responded by outclassing the rest of the field in the high jump, clearing 1.84m when no other could manage more than 1.78m.
A 12.94m best throw in the shot put was followed by a strong 200m to end the day on 3765 points, enjoying a slender gap from Northern Ireland’s Kate O’Connor on 3656.
“It's decent, solid,” she said.
“I’ve got two season’s bests which I wasn’t really expecting so I’m happy and feeling good, feeling like I recovered well. We’ll see what happens.”
National Lottery players raise more than £30million a week for good causes including vital funding into sport – from grassroots to elite. Find out how your numbers make amazing happen at: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk and get involved by using the hashtag: #TNLAthletes.
Shopkeeper filmed telling customer he had been told to deny rations to anyone refusing to buy flag in run-up to Independence Day People holding Indian flags during a boat rally to mark the 75th Independence Day at Neelangarai beach, in Chennai. Photograph: Idrees Mohammed/EPA
The Indian rupee was headed for a weekly decline on Friday despite softer-than-expected U.S. inflation data, with some traders saying the local currency underperformed its Asian peers due to a one-time dollar outflow. The local currency is down 0.6% from a week ago. By comparison, the onshore Chinese yuan was up 0.4% this week, the Indonesian rupiah rose 1.4% and the Singapore dollar by 0.8%.
New Delhi will enforce a mask mandate again after COVID-19 infections rose in the past fortnight, a government order showed on Thursday, though a similar order in April failed to improve compliance. New Delhi reported 2,146 new infections in the past 24 hours and eight deaths, the worst figures among Indian states and federal territories. The country reported 16,299 new infections during the period, taking the cumulative total to 44.2 million, while deaths rose by 53 to 526,879.
India's palm oil imports in July fell 10% from a month ago, as refiners ramped up purchases of rival soyoil to take advantage of New Delhi's move to allow duty-free imports of the vegetable oil to calm all-time high prices, a trade body said on Friday. Higher soyoil purchases by the world's biggest edible oil importer will support U.S. soyoil prices, but will dent rival palm oil's share in Indian buying and force Malaysian and Indonesian sellers to offer discounts to regain the market share, traders said. India's palm oil imports in July fell to 530,420 tonnes from 590,921 tonnes a month earlier, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) said in a statement.
US lawmakers on Friday adopted President Joe Biden's sprawling climate, tax and health care plan — a major win for the veteran Democrat that includes the biggest ever American investment in the battle against global warming.
Moscow should not be shy in ‘accepting the hand extended to us by Kim Jong-un’, says Russian defence expert
President says ‘at present, the threat of Chinese military force has not decreased’
Michelle Bachelet is to make the first visit by a UN rights chief to Bangladesh next week, including to the sprawling refugee camps home to nearly a million Rohingyas.
Hundreds of billions of dollars for clean energy projects, cheaper prescription drugs and new corporate taxes are a few of the key items in US President Joe Biden's massive investment plan, which Congress has now passed.
An Australian economist detained by Myanmar's junta has pleaded not guilty to breaching the colonial-era official secrets act, a source close to the case said on Friday.
Can Tottenham Hotspur mount a credible challenge for the English Premier League title? Much could depend on their secret weapon, winger Dejan Kulusevski.
The Hindu priest on the banks of the holy river Ganges spoke softly, but had a threatening message 75 years after the birth of independent India: his religion must be the heart of Indian identity.
Not far from the rusted-out tanks and anti-landing spikes that litter the beaches of the Taiwanese island where he lives, 92-year-old veteran Yang Yin-shih reads his newspaper in the shadow of the enemy that regularly adorns its pages.
Aaron Fotheringham was born with a disability but that did not stop him from becoming an inspiration for the whole generation of extreme WCMX riders.
Firefighting teams and equipment from six EU nations started to arrive in France on Thursday to help battle a spate of wildfires, including a fierce blaze in the parched southwest that has forced thousands to evacuate.
An international LGBT gathering in Taiwan was cancelled Friday after global organisers demanded the self-ruling island's name be removed from the 2025 event — a move slammed by the government.
Petitioner asks Calcutta High Court to stop circulation of photos in question
Tens of thousands of Afghan men, women and children rushed to Kabul's airport a year ago in a desperate bid to flee the advancing Taliban, who seized power on August 15, 2021.
Former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday arrived in Bangkok after his visa ran out following a month-long stint in Singapore where he had taken refuge from protesters at home.
Akshay Kumar is the noble-souled hero charged with marrying off his four sisters, while they are left mostly as figures of fun Painfully unsubtle … Raksha Bandhan Photograph: Publicity image