THIAM CLAIMS RIO CROWN

BELGIAN DEFEATS THE DEFENDING CHAMPION JESSICA ENNIS-HILL WITH SUPERB PB-FILLED SERIES OF MARKS

HEPTATHLON

FOUR YEARS ago Nafissatou Thiam placed 14th as a 17-year-old in the World Junior Championships during the same summer in which Jessica Ennis-Hill delighted home crowds with her golden performance at the London Games.

Fast forward one Olympic cycle and the brilliant young Belgian is now herself an Olympic gold medallist as she defeated the defending champion after an incredible PB-filled two days of action.

Nafissatou Thiam: set five PBs in seven events to claim a surprise gold

Thiam far exceeded her own expectations and also produced one of the surprises of the Games with her heptathlon win, achieving 6810 points compared to Ennis-Hill’s 6775 and Canada’s world pentathlon champion Brianne Theisen-Eaton’s 6653.

Setting personal bests in five of the seven events, 2014 European bronze medallist and last year’s European indoor pentathlon runner-up Thiam added more than 300 points to her own Belgian record and surprised herself with her achievement.

“It’s crazy. I wasn’t expecting that,” she said. “Maybe top eight, but not the gold.

“I still cannot believe it,” she added. “Olympic champion – it still sounds so big when I say it.”

Jessica Ennis-Hill: took early lead with 12.84 in the hurdles

And it is big. Previously on the global senior stage Thiam had finished 14th at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow and improved to 11th in Beijing two years later, while she also won the European junior title in 2013, but her PB was 6508 from 2014 and she wasn’t listed as a contender in our own event preview. The Roger Lespagnard-coached athlete stepped up to the occasion in style, dealing the best with the long days and testing conditions to hurdle quicker, jump longer and higher and throw further than she ever had before.