There has been a steady flow of British female heptathletes over the years, starting with Mary Peters. Things picked up again with Denise Lewis, who seemed to kick-start the newest and current generation (Kelly Sotherton, Jessica Ennis, etc).
And already there are new talents on the horizon. Jade Surman has been performing well for a while, but last weekend saw the stunning breakthrough of another British multi-eventer - Katarina Thompson (born Jan '93).
She first emerged last year when, at age 14, she jumped 1.80m (5' 10¾"). She dabbled in combined events in 2007, but this year she seems to be taking them more seriously.
Last weekend Thompson (who has just turned 15) won the junior women's pentathlon at a combined events international competition in France with a score of 3944! Her individual marks were 9.24, 1.73m (5' 8"), 10.10m (33' 1¾"), 6.11m (20' 0½") and 2:23.67.
Her 3944 is a UK youth record (even though she has another two years left in the age group) and is the third-best ever by a British junior athlete. Further, her 6.11m in the long jump is a UK age-15 best - and that is arguably 'only' her third best event!
As far as I can see, Thompson's 3944 is a world age-15 best for the pentathlon. She has another two years as a youth (U18) athlete - can she close in on Carolina Klüft's world youth best of 4261? The British junior pentathlon record (4096) will most likely be smashed by Thompson before she turns a senior in 2013.
It will also be interesting to see if she can make the GB Olympic team as a junior in 2012, but for now it's better to take things one step at a time.
Here is the world youth all-time pentathlon list: 4261 Carolina Klüft SWE 12 Feb 2000 (age 17) 4224 Peggy Beer GDR 26 Jan 1985 (age 15) 4097 Antonia Schulze-Borgees GER 7 Feb 1999 (age 16) 4060 Denisa Ščerbová CZE 21 Feb 2003 (age 16) 3988 Zuzana Hejnová CZE 21 Feb 2003 (age 16) 3944 Katarina Thompson GBR 2 Mar 2008 (age 15) 3936 Nikol Ogrodníková CZE 10 Feb 2007 (age 16) 3910 Marie Burešová CZE 10 Feb 2002 (age 16) 3895 Dan Jiao CHN 20 Feb 2001 (age 16) 3867 Eliška Klučinová CZE 25 Feb 2005 (age 16) 3852 Kateřina Cachová CZE 10 Feb 2006 (age 15) 3831 Alina Fodorova UKR 15 Feb 2006 (age 16) 3818 Simona Neaţă ROU 18 Feb 2006 (age 16) 3846 Shana Woods USA 14 Mar 2004 (age 15) 3815 Jade Surman GBR 13 Feb 2005 (age 15) 3807 Viktorija Žemaityte LTU 8 Feb 2002 (age 16) 3792 Helena Vinařová CZE 24 Feb 1990 (age 15) 3785 Jessica Ennis GBR 26 Jan 2003 (age 16) 3775 Hanna Juzyszyn POL 5 Feb 2000 (age 16) 3760 Zhang Tingting CHN 22 Feb 2003 (age 16)
This list is just based on performances I can find from trawling the net. If anyone knows of any other youth pentathlon performances, feel free to post them here.
Forgot to mention she ran a UK age-15 best in the 300m earlier this year too. Her 38.56 is the second fastest ever by a British U17 - faster than the likes of Nicola Sanders and Hayley Jones ran when they were her age. And in the race she ran that time, Katarina beat Victoria Ohuruogu... guess who's sister she is!
The only coverage on terrestrial TV is on BBC 2 tomorrow between 7.30pm and 8pm - just half an hour to squeeze in the coverage of Sotherton and Chambers.
Jon wrote:She scored 5343 (15.51, 1.78, 9.94m, 24.29, 5.85m, 32.50m, 2:21.68) with PBs in the 100H, 200m, JT and 800m.
The world age 15 heptathlon best is Drechsler's 5780, while Peggy Beer scored 5474 at age 14.
It's worth comparing her scores to Drechsler's (14.80, 1.80, 11.66, 24.03, 6.38, 32.58 and 2:20.1) and Beers (14.50, 1.77, 10.42, 25.11, 5.64, 32.32, 2:12.5) to see where she can improve - definately in the hurdles and shot where she's down on the other two
Jon wrote:There has been a steady flow of British female heptathletes over the years, starting with Mary Peters.
Minor point but Mary P was a pentathlete, not a heptathlete. She retired in 1974, a few years before the hep was introduced (early 80s).
Britain's first great multi-eventer was of course Mary Rand, who won pentathlon silver at the 1964 Olympics.
very minor point !!! i'm pretty sure jon wasn't aware of that !!!
Speaking of British Heptathletes. ..... We were reminiscing about the original GLADIATORS TV series the night in the pub when I did my one an only impression. I never mimic people but since I was a kid I have done this bit on the gladiator "Nightshade". She used to do this 360 turn, put her hands to her hips and twitch her lips. I googled her the next day only to find, she was an incredible heptathlete!!
Judy Simpson with a PB of 6623.....can't believe I didn't know that! Just before my time I guess.
Jaack wrote:Speaking of British Heptathletes. ..... We were reminiscing about the original GLADIATORS TV series the night in the pub when I did my one an only impression. I never mimic people but since I was a kid I have done this bit on the gladiator "Nightshade". She used to do this 360 turn, put her hands to her hips and twitch her lips. I googled her the next day only to find, she was an incredible heptathlete!!
Judy Simpson with a PB of 6623.....can't believe I didn't know that! Just before my time I guess.
Isn't Tempest from the current series of Gladiator a multi-eventer? And battle-axe is the Scottish Hammer record holder, isn't she?
Superb thread, thanks Jon! Interesting to note that when the young lady learns to hurdle, she'll pick up scads more points. With 7.88 speed, she's taking nearly 3 tenths of a second over each barrier in that 60mH event. Lots of room for improvement there!
Jon wrote:She scored 5343 (15.51, 1.78, 9.94m, 24.29, 5.85m, 32.50m, 2:21.68) with PBs in the 100H, 200m, JT and 800m.
The world age 15 heptathlon best is Drechsler's 5780, while Peggy Beer scored 5474 at age 14.
It's worth comparing her scores to Drechsler's (14.80, 1.80, 11.66, 24.03, 6.38, 32.58 and 2:20.1) and Beers (14.50, 1.77, 10.42, 25.11, 5.64, 32.32, 2:12.5) to see where she can improve - definately in the hurdles and shot where she's down on the other two
Thompson's shot isn't dire (her PB is 10.10m), but you're right about her hurdles. With her speed and height, she should be a lot better, but there's plenty of time to improve.
Her PBs are:
60m - 7.88
100m - 12.35 (1.4m/s)
200m - 24.29
300m - 38.56i
800m - 2:21.68
100mH - 15.51
HJ - 1.80m
LJ - 6.11m
SP - 10.10m
JT - 32.50m
Pen - 3944
Hep - 5343
Jaack wrote:Speaking of British Heptathletes. ..... We were reminiscing about the original GLADIATORS TV series the night in the pub when I did my one an only impression. I never mimic people but since I was a kid I have done this bit on the gladiator "Nightshade". She used to do this 360 turn, put her hands to her hips and twitch her lips. I googled her the next day only to find, she was an incredible heptathlete!!
Judy Simpson with a PB of 6623.....can't believe I didn't know that! Just before my time I guess.
Isn't Tempest from the current series of Gladiator a multi-eventer? And battle-axe is the Scottish Hammer record holder, isn't she?
Tempest is Lucy Boggis who is the youngest gladiator at 19... her life dream is to get to the 2012 Olympics!!! she is a talent!
what is worrying about Lucy is that at 16 she was doing amazing for her age and has since slowed down breaking her PBS- but 40.11 is really good for 16!!! and 1.71 for aged 14!!!
Seeing as her dream is 2012 and breakthroughs having been made, i wonder?
One year on since this thread was created....
Last weekend Thompson (who is now 16) jumped to the top of the 2009 UK pentathlon rankings (and second in the 2009 HJ rankings), adding 150 points to her PB with a score of 4092.
She has now overtaken Jessica Ennis on the UK junior all-time list (Ennis scored 4089 at the age of 19). Had Thompson jumped just 2cm further in the LJ, she'd have broken Aileen Wilson's UK junior record (4096) and Antonia Schulze-Borgees' world age 16-best (4097).
Her scores at the weekend were:
8.95 (PB), 1.82m (PB), 10.09m, 5.79m, 2:18.18 (PB).
Good to see that a year on and good imporvements are still being made, most important thing is to make sure that she wants to keep in the sport through adolescent years and enjoy it along the way.
First major international test would come at the World Youths i presume this year, admittidely its difficult to know what the competition is like around the world yet, but she should be challenging for a medal based on those performances.
She very much has the ability to break they Junior UK record and the world age 16 best had she jumped around her SB in the long jump.
Not perhaps so good that a 16 year old girl is the 2nd best high jumper Britain has at the moment, and thats behind another multi eventer, with Jessica Ennis the other mutil eventer likely to lead the rankings come the summer.......
3a wrote:How do GB keep churning out the Multi stars?
And why are they all so bad at throwing javelin? I don't suppose Thompson is going to lose this one - she's still over 90 points ahead of Laura Ikauniece after 6 events, but she lost 168 points on the Latvian in JT.
3a wrote:How do GB keep churning out the Multi stars?
And why are they all so bad at throwing javelin? I don't suppose Thompson is going to lose this one - she's still over 90 points ahead of Laura Ikauniece after 6 events, but she lost 168 points on the Latvian in JT.
Mid 30's is very reasonable for a 16 year old IMHO.It's better than Ennis at her age, and she has already developed to 46 meters. As far as I'm aware, the only top Britih heptathlete with a weak jav is Sotherton. Livemore and Lewis excelled in the are and Ennis is heading towards 50m every year.
Thompos did indeed manage the win with a 2'20 800m . 5700+ points. third of the all time youth list IIRC, behind Hejnova (who has since switched to the 400m hurdles, something Sotherton and Kluft should have done by now IMO. )
3a wrote:How do GB keep churning out the Multi stars?
And why are they all so bad at throwing javelin? I don't suppose Thompson is going to lose this one - she's still over 90 points ahead of Laura Ikauniece after 6 events, but she lost 168 points on the Latvian in JT.
Mid 30's is very reasonable for a 16 year old IMHO. It's better than Ennis at her age, and she has already developed to 46 meters. As far as I'm aware, the only top British heptathlete with a weak jav is Sotherton. Lewis excelled in the area and Ennis is heading towards 50m every year.
Thompson did indeed manage the win with a 2'20 800m . 5700+ points. third of the all time youth list IIRC, behind Hejnova (who has since switched to the 400m hurdles, something Sotherton and Kluft should have done by now IMO. )
3a wrote:Mid 30's is very reasonable for a 16 year old IMHO.
Not sure I would agree. Calling 33.77 mid 30's is a bit generous anyway. And out of her 14 rivals, 8 outthrew her, and the top two did so by roughly 9 and 8 meters.
I don't suppose Thompson is going to lose this one - she's still over 90 points ahead of Laura Ikauniece after 6 events, but she lost 168 points on the Latvian in JT. 