Britain's next multi-events star?

[3a]

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.

Also just realised, Livemore Simposn was Awful at the Jav. Maybe you have a point. Thompson will be fine though, I'm sure.

[Jon]

Katarina Johnson-Thompson set a pentathlon PB today of 4146 (8.85, 1.81m, 9.90m, 6.12m, 2:21.35) to move up to third on the (unofficial) world youth all-time list, just 115 points behind Carolina Kluft. Had she equalled her SBs in the 60H, LJ and SP (more than a metre down), she'd have bettered Kluft's score.

[72]

In the UK as she is now 17 years of age ( born Jan 93) and she is an Under- 20 in the rankings. Is she still a Youth in World definition terms.?

[Jon]

Yes, to be a youth athlete you have to be under-18 in the year of competition. She has already had her birthday this year, so she'll remain 17 for the rest of the year and will therefore be a youth.

[Gabriella]

This is a great score for Thompson and 200 point improvement on her score from when she was 15. Really solid jumping from her again.

We need to take this for what it is though, a great youth and U20 score. Peggy Beer scored 4224 at 15 and though she went on to great things as a junior (Euro junior gold, world junior bronze) as a senior she 'only' won bronze at the european outdoors and her highest position in a global heptathlon was 6th in Barcelona. She had a good PB of 6531, but that is only 10th on the German list and not as high as one would expect. We also see Denisa Scerbova high on the junior list and yet as with Beer she hasn't done anything significant at senior level. Much further down on the list is Ennis, who has come into her own as a senior.

Hopefully Thompson will continue to develop and be a world beater.

[Jon]

I've altered the title of this thread as Britain has a few young decathletes of note - Daniel Awde has been steadily improving over the past few years, then Daniel Gardiner last year broke Awde's UK junior decathlon record (w/ junior implements) and finished fifth at the European juniors. But Welsh youngster David Guest is showing even more promise.

Today he won the England senior decathlon title today with a score of 7727, and he is still only 18. That's the second best ever score in a senior-implement decathlon by a British junior behind Daley Thompson. His individual marks were (PBs in bold): 11.05 (-0.7), 7.37m (1.5), 12.61m, 2.01m, 48.37, 14.64, 38.75m, 4.76m, 46.70m, 4:34.22.

His javelin is an obvious weak point, as is the SP and DT, but the throws usually improve as athletes get older and stronger. The rest of his events are pretty good, particularly the long jump and hurdles (given his age).

That 7727 adds more than 300 points to the PB he set earlier in the year and is more than enough to qualify for the Commonwealths. It's roughly 250 points more than what Dean Macey scored at the same age. I wonder how close he can get to 8000 points before the year is out. At this stage he should also be the fave for the World Juniors.

[Gabriella]

It's a good result. Like with Jodie Williams, it's one to keep an eye on and to see how he develops.

To make a comparison, Jan Felix Nobel, the U20 world champ in the decathlon from 2008, scored 7736 when he was 17. When he was 19 he won the U20 title with 7896....and that remains his PB. He's now 21 and his best since then is 7758.

On the other hand, Michael Schrader, winner from Gotzis in 2009, scored 'just' 7297 aged 18. However, by 21 he was well over 8000 pts with 8248 and at 22 he won Gotzis and scored 8522. His development was more steady:

Year - Age - Score
2005 - 18 - 7297
2006 - 19 - 7695
2007 - 20 - 7947
2008 - 21 - 8248
2009 - 22 - 8522

[LopenUupunut]

Katarina Johnson-Thompson set a pentathlon PB today of 4146 (8.85, 1.81m, 9.90m, 6.12m, 2:21.35) to move up to third on the (unofficial) world youth all-time list, just 115 points behind Carolina Kluft. Had she equalled her SBs in the 60H, LJ and SP (more than a metre down), she'd have bettered Kluft's score.

Any news since?

[nevetsllim]

Katarina Johnson-Thompson set a pentathlon PB today of 4146 (8.85, 1.81m, 9.90m, 6.12m, 2:21.35) to move up to third on the (unofficial) world youth all-time list, just 115 points behind Carolina Kluft. Had she equalled her SBs in the 60H, LJ and SP (more than a metre down), she'd have bettered Kluft's score.

Any news since?

Out for the season with patellar tendinopathy.

[LopenUupunut]

OK, thanks.

[Jon]

What nevets said ^

She raced in the 100H at Loughborough earlier in the year and crashed out. I don't know if that was the cause of the injury or whether it was her dabbling in the TJ that caused it. Maybe a bit of both. Hopefully she'll be back next year. It would have been good to see her at the World Juniors, but fortunately she'll be young enough for the next one in 2012.

[SpeedyG2012]

It was a real pity Kathrina got injured before the World Juniors this year, as she looked in ominous form during the indoor season.

Hope she recovers well al a Jess Ennis and comes back stronger next season.

Also props to David Guest for an impressive performance at Moncton, just missing out on a medal and finishing 4th.

[Jon]

(Conversation carried on from this thread)

My main concern is that during 2012, while KJT made big jumps, some of her rivals roughly her age made bigger ones by the time of the Olympics.

While some of her contemporaries scored higher than KJT in 2012, KJT improved by one of the biggest margins. And a lot of her rivals are (in athletics terms) a year older, which - at that age - can make a lot of difference.

KJT (born 1993, so still a junior in 2012) improved by 480 points
Schippers (born 1992) improved by 188
Ikauneice (1992) improved by 351
Gambetta (1993) was injured last year
Udelhoven (1992) dropped 615 points
Krizsan (1993) improved by 163
Dadic (1993) improved by 504
De Souza (1993) improved by 455
Linda (1995) improved by 596
etc, etc....

So apart from one or two exceptions (both of which trailed KJT's PB by 400/500 points), KJT's improvement was one of the better ones. And even had she not had such a big improvement, it wouldn't have necessarily been a huge concern. Ennis's progression was very steady, with her biggest year-on-year improvement being 377 points (2005-2006).

One to keep a look out for, though, is Cuba's Yorgelis Rodriguez, the world junior champ. She was born in 1995 (so will still be a junior next year) and improved her PB last weekend to 6186 (including a 48.70m javelin throw!)

[aaronk]

Another young 'un to watch is USA's Kendell Williams, who smashed the indoor pent HSR by 144 points with her 4068.
She holds all the first three HS class Hept records.....
Frosh (2010)--4914
Soph (2011)--5170
Junior (2012)--5578.
(The Senior class record is the 5533 by Shana Woods from 2006. Williams should CRUSH that mark!!)

And now that indoor Pent HSR!!

I'm looking for her to go over 6000 this year!!
She was born in 1995.

[Jon]

I'd not heard of her before you mentioned her, but Kendell Williams really does look like a great talent. I haven't a clue (nor do I care) what all the American school terminology (eg frosh/soph, etc) means, but her 5578 from last year is an US youth record in the heptathlon. It's just 100 points away from the US junior record (Ellannee Richardson's 5678) and Williams will be a junior until the end of next year so will have plenty of time to try to break that.

Williams' 4068 score in the pentathlon from earlier this year is also a US junior record. She's a fantastic hurdler (world youth bronze medallist and a PB of 13.39 over the senior-height hurdles), but that makes me wonder whether she'll focus on that event in future instead of the heptathlon. I hope she sticks with combined events as she's a great all-round talent (PBs of 1.82m in the HJ, 6.32m in the LJ, and even 58.63 in the 400H at age 15!).

I'm pleased you mentioned her - definitely one to watch for future!

[aaronk]

I'd not heard of her before you mentioned her, but Kendell Williams really does look like a great talent. I haven't a clue (nor do I care) what all the American school terminology (eg frosh/soph, etc) means, but her 5578 from last year is an US youth record in the heptathlon. It's just 100 points away from the US junior record (Ellannee Richardson's 5678) and Williams will be a junior until the end of next year so will have plenty of time to try to break that.

Williams' 4068 score in the pentathlon from earlier this year is also a US junior record. She's a fantastic hurdler (world youth bronze medallist and a PB of 13.39 over the senior-height hurdles), but that makes me wonder whether she'll focus on that event in future instead of the heptathlon. I hope she sticks with combined events as she's a great all-round talent (PBs of 1.82m in the HJ, 6.32m in the LJ, and even 58.63 in the 400H at age 15!).

I'm pleased you mentioned her - definitely one to watch for future!

In the US, high schools are normally 4 year schools.
They go from the 9th through the 12th grades.
Thus, a frosh (freshman) is in the 9th grade, a sophomore (soph) is in the 10th grade, a junior (NOT as in World Junior!!) is in the 11th grade, and a senior is in the 12th grade.

What are the grades called where YOU are??

[Jon]

In the US, high schools are normally 4 year schools.
They go from the 9th through the 12th grades.
Thus, a frosh (freshman) is in the 9th grade, a sophomore (soph) is in the 10th grade, a junior (NOT as in World Junior!!) is in the 11th grade, and a senior is in the 12th grade.

What are the grades called where YOU are??

Yep, people have told me this info before, but it never sinks in. The two types of junior doesn't help matters, but essentially I think my brain just deems it as 'non-important' info!

In the UK we just call our school years by numbers - high school (or "secondary school" as we call it) begins with year 7, then goes up to year 13. But when it comes to athletics, we never refer to athletes as being in "year 8" or "year 9" or whatever - we simply go by age groups (under-15, under-17, under-20). It's so much easier and more in line with what the IAAF does, although unfortunately Britain doesn't recognise under-18/youth as one of the standard age groups.

[26mi235]

In the UK, sports are not organized almost entirely around high schools, so age is used. In the US, club soccer teams are U-14 etc. But, with everything oriented to schools and classes, it is the natural classification, even when confusing (Lucas Verzbicas was late in school and so was sophomore-age as a freshman but then got back 'on-track' by graduating while a junior).

The Jamaican system is a little confusing to us because it seems that some of the athletes are a year later than in the US. It was pointed out that one of the star sprinters would be 20 soon, so equating them with US high school students can be a little misleading; I pointed out that (college senior) Jordan Hasay was 20 at the beginning of the cross country season. I will note that the results listed on the board for the Jamaican meet listed the ages, which helps.