Katarina Johnson-Thompson withdraws from Gotzis meeting
BySportsbeat
Updated 12/05/2015 at 14:01 GMT
Katarina Johnson-Thompson will not defend her Gotzis Hypo-Meeting title in Austria later this month after seeing her recent preparations disrupted by injury.
Bittersweet: Katarina Johnson-Thompson (Reuters)
Image credit: Reuters
Johnson-Thompson appeared at the Great City Games in Manchester last weekend, narrowly finishing second in the 200m hurdles behind Meghan Beesley.
However the European indoor pentathlon champion's training has been hindered by a knee injury sustained in March.
And with that in mind, the decision has been taken to opt out of the Gotzis Hypo-Meeting with this summer's World Championships in Beijing the priority.
It also rules out the possibility of both Johnson-Thompson and Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill going head-to-head for the first time since London 2012.
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And coach Mike Holmes, who yesterday insisted Ennis-Hill's recent return after two years out would not be used as an motivational tool for his athlete, revealed a return to full fitness was now the main priority.
"Some good conditioning work has been possible, but it is only recently that Katarina has returned to relatively light track work, which was sufficient to enable her to compete on Saturday," he said.
"However, much of the preparation necessary to compete effectively across all events for the heptathlon in the Gotzis Hypo Meeting at the end of May has been lost.
"It is now possible to start back and progress steadily to full training to catch up and prepare for later in the summer; with the World Championships heptathlon in Beijing very much in mind."
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