Britain’s multi-eventing queen plans to defend her World and Commonwealth crowns in 2022
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Katarina Johnson-Thompson has revealed plans to defend both her world and Commonwealth titles next summer.
Britain’s heptathlon queen is winding down after her heroic Olympic bid came to grief due to injury in Tokyo.
She is poised to team up with Florida-based coach Petros Kyprianou after splitting with Bertrand Valcin, with whom she worked so successfully in France for five years.
And she insists that at 28 she remains hungry to add to her medal haul in two of next summer’s three championships.
The Liverpudlian said: “I wouldn’t put it past me doing both the Worlds in Eugene and the Commonwealths as they are in Birmingham and I’ve got fond memories of home champs. I haven’t decided yet but I’d like to do two of the three.”
Johnson-Thompson has also yet to reach a decision on where she will base herself but says she no longer feels the need that she did in 2016 to move away from the UK.
“I was very overwhelmed back in 2016 with a lot of aspects in my life,” she said. “It wasn’t down to the coaching, it was just me trying to change everything about my life because I didn’t know what was going wrong.
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“At the time Bertrand was the person and coach that I needed. He was very chilled, very relaxed, the sort of person you could never anger and the right type of person to calm me down and help me relax.
“I’m definitely now going into a different part of my life where I don’t need calming down that much. I’ve matured and I know what I’m doing, so I’m looking for something else.
“I am a different athlete where my life is now and excited both for a new challenge and for what the future holds.”
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