Record 1.98m high jump helps put Belgian in line for sixth major outdoor gold

After day one in Munich, double Olympic and double world champion Nafissatou Thiam looks on course to challenge Jess Ennis’s 2010 European Championships heptathlon record.

Overnight, the Belgian’s score of 4063 points is just eight down on her world title win, where she scored 6947 compared to the Briton’s 6823 in Barcelona.

Thiam was third in the hurdles on Wednesday (August 17) with 13.34 (-0.5) to equal her second-best ever time as she trailed Annik Kalan’s 13.23. It was slightly below her Eugene form but she excelled in the high jump with a 1.98m clearance to break her own European Championships best of 1.97m set back in 2014 and no-one else could clear higher than 1.89m.

Thiam threw 14.94m in the shot, similar to her Eugene 15.03m, and superior to her immediate rivals so she increased her lead to 257 points with a score of 3143 from Adrianna Sulek’s 2886 and Noor Vidts’ 2882.

World silver medallist Anouk Vetter, who headed Thiam for much of the competition at Eugene, had started slowly with a 13.37 hurdles and 1.71m high jump (compared to 13,30 and 1.80m in Eugene) and a 15.68m shot moved her up from 14th to fourth on 2843 points. Again, though, she was down on her huge American mark of 16.25m.

Vetter won the final 200m heat in 24.00 (-0.2) which is not significantly faster than Mary Peters ran to complete Pentathlon gold in Munich 50 years ago, even though she was some way back on Heide Rosenthal’s 22.96.

Thiam ran 24.64 (0.6) in the second heat (down on her 24.39 in the USA) but she still had a 214-point lead on Vidts (3849), Vetter (3824) and Sulek (3815).

For Britain, Jade O’Dowda ran 13.72 in the hurdles and then set a 1.80m high jump PB to move her to fourth after two events but a 12.98m shot dropped her to 12th on 2722 points. A 24.80 200m saw her 11th overnight on 3480 points.

Holly Mills started with a 13.74 hurdles and then disappointed with a 1.74m high jump. A 13.23m shot dropped her back to 17th, a position in which she remained overnight after a 25.11 200m meant she sits on 3538 points.