She leads Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam and Carolin Schafer, who sit three and six points back respectively going into the long jump, javelin and 800m.

RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: There was fresh hope as Johnson-Thompson hit new heights in Gotzis but saw just how tough it will be to win a World Championship medal in August.

With the World Championships in London just around the corner, the excitement levels are slowly starting to build. WILL KELLEHER takes a look at the athletes that fans should watch out for.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson's World Championship medal hopes have been all but dashed in the opening session of the heptathlon after an awful high jump performance.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson registered a season-best throw of 41.72 metres but it was only good enough for 20th place as her heptathlon hopes took a hit on Sunday afternoon.

RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: An evening that started with Jessica Ennis-Hill collecting a back-dated gold medal concluded with the sense the current generation are short of where they need to be.

Pole vaulter Holly Bradshaw declared herself 'heartbroken' after falling short in the final. Bradshaw needed to clear the bar at 4.75m on her final jump to stand a chance of a podium finish.

RIATH AL-SAMARRAI AT THE LONDON STADIUM: Johnson-Thompson, there was a degree of redemption, considering it was this discipline that wrecked her chances in the heptathlon.

UK Athletics chief executive Niels de Vos has defended Britain's performance at the World Championship by claiming an athletics medal is the hardest prize to win in sport.

The 25-year-old is favourite for the pentathlon at the World Indoor Championships, which were getting under way on Thursday but has played down her chances of winning.

In the space of a pentathlon on Friday, Johnson-Thompson ran, jumped and threw her way out of the realm of perennial underachiever and into one reserved for world champions.

Here, Sportsmail's Riath Al-Samarrai athletics correspondent brings you eight athletes to watch throughout the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia's Gold Coast.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson insists she has no plans to switch away from heptathlon to jumping events - but has indicated she is open to contesting a decathlon before the close of her career.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: Two gold medals tell a story of potential being fulfilled, but there has also been a painful loss. Her father, Ricky Thompson, died last November.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson sits top of the leaderboard after the opening morning of the heptathlon at the European Championships.

Sometimes the opposition is just too good. For that reason alone, Katarina Johnson-Thompson will reflect on the silver linings of her trip to Berlin instead of celebrating a golden hat-trick.

For Katarina Johnson-Thompson, there was a hugely impressive silver medal after eventually losing her fascinating heptathlon tussle with the great Belgian, Nafi Thiam.

On the basis of her impressive performances in winning a European heptathlon silver medal in Berlin this week, the odds are finally shortening on her one day finding a way past Nafi Thiam.

Athletic stars Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Dina Asher-Smith made the most of their post-season break by heading down the catwalk at Paris Fashion Week.

It says something about her complex psychology that Katarina Johnson-Thompson arrived to a headliner's billing in an Austrian mountain town on Friday and found it all rather strange.

RIATH AL-SAMARRAI IN GOTZIS: Perhaps she was being a little harsh on herself. Having admitted that she still feels like an 'impostor' at the highest level, she made a mockery of her words.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson arrived in Austria with doubts in her mind and left on Sunday night having maybe implanted a few in someone else.

Before Jodie Comer played the ruthless assassin Villanelle in the hit show, she honed her skills in drama classes at the same Liverpool school attended as the indoor pentathlon champion.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: Katarina Johnson-Thompson is talking about recognition and the time it can take for some folk to see what is so clear to others.

Her haul of 4,138 points puts her 96 clear of the Olympic champion from Belgium, which is not unusual - the configuration of this event is such that she usually has the best of day one.

RIATH AL-SAMARRAI IN DOHA: After all the squirming and falling and doubting and fouling, the Kat finally let herself out of the bag. The 26-year-old can now officially call herself the world's best.

RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: The 26-year-old scored an astonishing 6,981 points to crush the Olympic champion Nafi Thiam and go sixth on the all-time list, ahead of Britain's Jessica Ennis-Hill.

The comeback story of Katarina Johnson-Thompson (pictured with Jodie Comer) left her on the brink of tears last night and comes after several years of heartbreak on the track.

The 26-year-old broke Jessica Ennis-Hill's British record to post 6,981 points and take the title at the World Championships on Thursday. She beat defending champion Nafi Thiam by 304 points.

RIATH AL-SAMARRAI IN DOHA: There were tears before bedtime for Katarina Johnson-Thompson and a few more after breakfast on Friday morning.

Johnson-Thompson could break the 12-year-old European heptathlon record, according to the former champion who played a major role in the transformation of her career.

The heptathlete, 26, shared a sun-drenched snap of herself to Instagram on Monday posing on an idyllic sea swing.

Leading athletes from Team GB have taken the extraordinary step of launching legal action against the British Olympic Association over 'ridiculous' marketing rules.

INTERVIEW BY LAURA LAMBERT: While people are tucking into mince pies and turkey on Christmas Day, Katarina Johnson-Thompson will be out on the track, determined to get the edge on her rivals.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: I'll tell you one that surprised me - it was a message from my language tutor,' says Katarina Johnson-Thompson.

EXCLUSIVE BY RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: The heated marketing row that casts a shadow over Team GB's preparations for the Tokyo Olympics is expected to be resolved next week.

There are three significant events in the 2021 athletics calendar, with the European Indoors on March 5-7 joined by the rescheduled World Indoors on March 19-21 and the Tokyo Olympics.

One Direction stars Niall Horan and Harry Styles were two of the celeb fans who posted heartfelt tributes to the star on social media as the news broke.

RAY CONNOLLY: Waking up to learn that Glenn Frey, who co-wrote and sang that song with the American group The Eagles, had died, there was much lamentation among rock music fans.

Nicki Minaj dropped a music video for her new song Megatron, after promoting the track on social media for weeks.

Nicki Minaj has revealed she obtained a marriage license with her boyfriend, Kenneth Petty.

Nicki Minaj showed off her curvaceous figure in a set of sultry Instagram photos. The rapper and singer wore a body contouring brown Fendi dress and also posed with ex-con boyfriend Kenneth Petty.

Nicki Minaj went on a very special dinner date to Red Lobster with Jimmy Fallon during a pre-taped segment of a live edition of The Tonight Show.

Twelve years after the release of her first mixtape, Playtime is Over, Nicki Minaj is calling out artists and writers alike for what for not acknowledging her influence on hip hop music.

Payne's scheduled appearance at the Jeddah World Fest has sparked fury among activists angry at Saudi Arabia's criminalisation of gays, and jailing of women's rights activists.

Nicki Minaj shared a new trailer for Angry Birds 2 that features more of her character than any other. She plays Pinky in the upcoming sequel, a bird who speaks in the English accent she's used before.

Nicki Minaj hit back at naysayers who have been slamming her for dating convicted felon Kenneth 'Zoo' Petty: 'How f***ing dare you talk about lowering standards.'

Nicki Minaj has obtained a marriage license with boyfriend Kenneth Petty.

The rapper, 36, whose real name is Onika Tanya Maraj, is said to want to be known as Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, according to TMZ.

Almost a year after Cardi B threw a shoe at Nicki Minaj during New York Fashion Week, their closest friends are rekindling the feud.Cardi's best friend Star Brim, 27, wasn't there to defend her pal from