Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson stated “for me, it is a triumph” after she withdrew from the pentathlon on the World Athletics Indoor Championships.

Having accepted a wildcard entry two weeks earlier than the occasion, the defending champion selected to overlook the 800m.

“I am completely happy and wholesome,” Johnson-Thompson, 29, advised BBC Sport.

“I am not scared to come back out right here and get beat. Crucial factor was to not danger harm. Trying to the summer season, that is the most effective preparation for me.

“World Athletics requested if we needed the wildcard two weeks in the past and coaching was going nicely, so I believed why not? For me it is a triumph – I can take so many positives from this,” added Johnson-Thompson, who stated her “final” goal is the World Championships in July.

“I really imagine it is competitors rust. This has been six to eight weeks full coaching and I am in adequate form to contend. It has positively motivated me for the summer season and it is what I wanted.

“I wanted to come back out right here and get caught in as a result of I have not in such a very long time.”

Johnson-Thompson returns as Mills falls wanting medal

Pressured to withdraw at Tokyo 2020 after sustaining a calf harm within the 200m, Johnson-Thompson has since relocated to the US to coach beneath new coach Petros Kyprianou.

She was evidently missing in race sharpness as she completed sixth in her 60m hurdles warmth, and was visibly annoyed as she didn’t clear 1.86m within the excessive bounce, earlier than a throw of 13.02m within the shot put left her fifth on the finish of the morning session.

The 2018 champion’s medal hopes pale within the lengthy bounce – a second leap of 6.08m the one one in all three makes an attempt landed – and she or he didn’t return for the closing occasion.

That ultimate occasion noticed compatriot Holly Mills end an agonising fourth total, marginally lacking out on bronze by seven factors regardless of a courageous private greatest within the 800m.

The 21-year-old, in fourth after 4 occasions, ran two minutes 09.97 seconds – having began the day with a 60m hurdles better of 8.15secs – to complete simply behind American bronze medallist Kendell Williams.

Belgium’s Noor Vidts received gold, with Poland’s Adrianna Sulek in silver.

“It is painful to take,” stated Mills. “Fourth is a gut-wrenching place to come back. I ran my coronary heart out and I gave all of it I had. It was removed from an ideal pentathlon but it surely’s all I had on the day.”

She added: “It units me up rather well for season. I believe proper now I simply must go and cry for a little bit bit after which tomorrow I can look again on what I’ve achieved. I am happy with how far I’ve come.”

Neita goals to transform semi-final exit ‘into one thing nice’

Within the girls’s 60m, Britain’s Daryll Neita and Cheyanne Evans-Grey noticed their hopes ended within the semi-finals.

Two-time Olympic 4x100m relay bronze medallist Neita, a 100m finalist in Tokyo, certified for the semi-finals by profitable her warmth in 7.13 seconds – however she was unable to enhance within the semi-final, ending fifth in 7.15secs.

“It wasn’t begin. I attempted to claw it again on the finish however my end wasn’t adequate at the moment,” Neita stated.

“I am fairly excited with what I’ve achieved this indoor season. The World Indoors was a bonus. I am tremendous excited to take this form into the outside [season]. I did [have my eyes on the final] however I will convert it into one thing nice open air.”

Evans-Grey posted a private greatest time of seven.19secs to complete sixth in her semi-final.

Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji claimed the title in 6.96secs, forward of American pair Mikiah Brisco and Marybeth Sant-Worth.

Within the girls’s 400m competitors, Jessie Knight and Ama Pipi each additionally missed out on ultimate locations.

British champion Knight confronted a nervous look forward to affirmation of her semi-final qualification, having initially been disqualified after she was compelled off the monitor on her approach to inserting second in her warmth.

Reinstated, Knight produced a fast ultimate lap however narrowly missed out on one of many three qualifying locations for the ultimate, ending fourth.

In the meantime, Pipi’s time of 52.95 seconds noticed her end sixth in her semi-final, Jamaican Stephenie Ann McPherson profitable in 51.26secs to publish the quickest time earlier than Saturday’s ultimate.

Scott qualifies however injured Giles misses out

British champion Marc Scott safely progressed to the boys’s 3,000m ultimate, which takes place on Sunday.

The 28-year-old European indoor 5,000m document holder ran a managed race, shifting to the entrance on the ultimate lap to win his warmth in seven minutes 54.90 seconds.

Compatriot Jamaine Coleman’s time of 8:12.76 noticed him end eleventh in his warmth, as Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma set a quickest time of seven:46.21 throughout the three races.

There was large disappointment for the in-form Elliot Giles, who was compelled to withdraw earlier than his 800m warmth.

Giles, 27, has received eight of 10 outings over 800m and 1500m in 2022 however suffered an intercostal muscle pull within the warm-up and didn’t take to the monitor.

With the highest two in every warmth to qualify for the ultimate, third-placed Man Learmonth ran 1:49.13 and missed out by 0.36 seconds behind American Bryce Hoppel – whereas Charlie Grice completed sixth in his warmth in 1:50.17.

Within the girls’s 3,000m, Britain’s European indoor champion Amy-Eloise Markovc positioned fifteenth in 8:53.57 as Ethiopia’s Lemlem Hailu ran 8:41.82 to say gold.

In the meantime, Erin Wallace ran 4:12.46 in girls’s 1500m qualifying, ending fifth in her warmth.

Within the girls’s shot put, British champion and staff captain Sophie McKinna completed eighth with a throw of 18.62m and Amelia Strickler posted 16.86m for thirteenth. Portugal’s Auriol Dongmo received gold.

Elsewhere on a busy opening day, a shocking personal-best first bounce of 17.64m noticed Cuba’s 24-year-old Lazaro Martinez beat Portugal’s Olympic champion Pedro Pichardo to win the triple bounce title.

And the boys’s lengthy bounce title went to Greece’s Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou, who recorded a world lead leap of 8.55m to clinch gold.