European Indoor Championships: Johnson-Thompson , Muir win gold on day one

Katarina Johnson-Thompson took gold in the pentathlon and Laura Muir retained her 3,000m title in style as Britain led the standings after day one of the European Indoor Championships.

Johnson-Thompson finished with 4,983 points, just missing out on Nataliya Dobrynska’s world record mark of 5,013.Team-mate Niamh Emerson took silver and France’s Solene Ndama was third.

Scotland’s Muir then stormed away in the last 200 metres to win the evening’s final event.Muir lapped almost the entire field to cross the line in eight minutes 30.62 seconds and give Britain their second gold of day one in Glasgow.

Konstanze Klosterhalfen of Germany, who led for much of the race, finished second and there was another medal for Britain as Wales’ Melissa Courtney took bronze.’A really good day’: Johnson-Thompson pleased with performance.

Johnson-Thompson, who managed 5,000 points in the same competition in 2015, entered the penultimate event – the long jump – needing an effort of over 6.60m to give herself hope of breaking the world record going into the concluding 800m.

But she managed 6.53m with her only clean jump from three and looked distraught when the red flag was shown after what appeared to be a big final leap.

That left the Commonwealth heptathlon champion, 26, needing to run faster than two minutes 7.09 seconds in the final event, but she missed out by just over two seconds.

As for world junior heptathlon champion Emerson, who received an invitation to the event from the organisers, she produced personal bests in every event to achieve her best senior result.

The 19-year-old from Derbyshire, winner of heptathlon bronze at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, collapsed over the line to finish with 4,731 points and pip Ndama to the silver by eight points.

“It was a really good day,” Johnson-Thompson told Sport news. “I thought I couldn’t ask for more, but maybe I could have gone further in the long jump. It’s a really good score, my second best.”

An overjoyed Emerson added: “I was so tired, my legs just went [at the end of the race] – it was either down or stop. I thought I’d slipped to third or fourth. I’ve never done five PBs.”

Sydney Olympic heptathlon champion Denise Lewis told BBC Sport: “[Johnson-Thompson] gave it her all and ran her heart out in the 800m. It was a really big ask [to break the record], but she’s turned such a big corner.

“It’s another gold medal in the space of a year – a sign of a lot of hard work. Kat is a much better athlete physically and mentally.”

‘I can’t lose on my home turf’: Muir holds off Klosterhalfen challenge

Muir had less than three hours to recover between qualifying for Sunday’s 1500m final (20:12 GMT) and competing in the 3,000m final, while her main rival Klosterhalfen opted not to compete over the shorter distance in order to be fresh for the final event.

The German moved to the front early in the race and took Muir with her, but she was left trailing on the final lap as the Scot produced a stunning kick – to the delight of her home crowd.

“I knew I can’t lose it here – this is my home turf, my home track,” .”I had to try to hang on and then trust my kick. Luckily, I’ve got that in my armoury.”I was a little bit worried because the 1500m heat was faster than I would have liked, but I’m so glad I decided to go for the double.”

Veteran Douglas, 36, in triple jump final

British team captain Guy Learmonth came second in his 800m heat to move into Saturday’s semi-finals (18:25 GMT) and was joined by team-mates Jamie Webb and Joe Reid.

“I’m coming here to mix it with the big guys and hopefully do some damage,” Webb told BBC Sport, after he won his race.

Former heptathlete Morgan Lake reached Sunday’s high jump final (19:15 GMT) with her effort of 1.93m, and fellow Briton Nathan Douglas, a silver medallist in 2007, managed 16.48m to sneak into the men’s triple jump final (19:35 GMT), which also takes place on the final day of competition.

There was disappointment for Scotland’s Eilidh Doyle, who received a huge reception in front of her home crowd but failed to qualify for the women’s 400m final on Saturday.

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