Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam wins heptathlon gold to seal Olympic hattrick

Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam became the first woman in history to win three consecutive Olympic heptathlon crowns on Friday, sealing victory ahead of Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
Thiam, the 2016 and 2020 Olympic champion, finished with 6,880 points after the 800m, the final event in the seven-discipline test of endurance.
Johnson-Thompson took silver with 6,844 points while Thiam’s compatriot Noor Vidts won bronze with 6,707 points.
Thiam had taken a giant stride towards sealing her title after Friday’s morning events, when a massive 54.04m javelin throw left her 121 points clear of Johnson-Thompson after six events.
That left Thiam needing to finish within eight seconds of Johnson-Thompson’s time in the 800m.
Johnson-Thompson battled bravely down the stretch in the 800m to put as much distance between her and Thiam, finishing second in 2min 04.90sec.
But a weary Thiam just managed to scrape inside the eight-second window, crossing in 2:10.62 to claim her third Olympic gold.