Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill
Three-time world heptathlon champion on BBC Two

She [Nafi Thiam] has had some problems with her federation around her kit - she has not signed a code of conduct which she has to sign to compete for her country.

She has not been allowed to the pre-training camp. Her federation have denied this, but she says had to go somewhere else and prepare differently. Her physio has apparently not been allowed access to the Championship. She has had quite a lot going on off the track.

As a heptathlete, you need everything to go quite smoothly - you need to train where you need to be, not have any distractions and you need your therapy team as well.

This could have made her lead up to the Championships quite tricky.

There's very little rest of the athletes in the heptathlon.

The high jump, second of seven events, has started in Tokyo.

Great Britain's Jade O'Dowda has cleared 1.68m early on.

We'll take all your hot takes today, get them rolling in.

The women's 200m final closes our day at 14:22 BST.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Katarina Johnson-Thompson

Hovering just above the three-inch scar on KJT’s Achilles tendon is a tattoo of the Blue Shell, known to any Mario Kart player as a homing projectile that stops the race leader on impact.

She had recovered from the Achilles injury going into the Olympics in 2021, but suffered a calf injury in the fourth event of the heptathlon that ended her Games.

“In Tokyo, the Blue Shell came and absolutely took me out,” she has joked.

Harry Poole
BBC Sport in Tokyo

Roll up, roll up! It’s a bumper night of action on Friday at Japan’s National Stadium.

We have an action-packed five-hour feast of athletics and the stadium continues to fill up as the heptathlon gets up and running.

These are by far the most pleasant conditions we have had so far - a cool 25C at about 6pm local time.

The heptathletes will certainly be grateful for that given they’ll spend the majority of the session out there.

As are we, sat in the stands drinking copious amounts of coffee…

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill
Three-time world heptathlon champion on BBC Two

It is hard to know how everyone is looking throughout the season. Nafi Thiam hasn't really competed much this year and Kat [Johnson-Thompson] hasn't had many competitions either.

But we've got Anna Hall who broke the 7,000 point barrier, absolutely destroying her personal best and competing a lot. We have seen her form.

We need to see how this hurdles goes before we can see what shape everyone is in.

Image source, Getty Images

In the build-up to the championships Katarina Johnson-Thompson has been speaking to BBC Sport about her previous experience of Tokyo.

It was in the Japanese capital four years ago, in a soulless stadium without spectators amid the coronavirus pandemic, that Johnson-Thompson's Olympic heptathlon hopes were shattered by injury during the 200m.

Just as she did that day, she has picked herself up and carried on, and returns as a two-time world champion and an Olympic silver medallist.

"Potentially [it will be in my mind], maybe in the 200m, but I don't see it as a redemption story at all," Johnson-Thompson told BBC Sport.

"I see my story as a happy one now. I know I've had a lot of low moments.

"These [competitions] are all freebies for me to take. I want to see the stadium full, I want to see Japan for what it is. I'm really excited to be back."

Read the full feature here.

Harry Poole
BBC Sport in Tokyo

Hopefully Abigail Pawlett is going to be OK.

She hit the ground with a real thud at the end of her 100m hurdles race.

She was in conversation with a few medics a moment ago, I'm not sure if she's trying to maybe get some treatment before beginning the high jump.

The turnaround is so tight so I'm not sure what is going to be possible. She whacked her head on the ground but may also have pointed to shoulder discomfort there.

The heptathlon takes place over the next two days, with four events today and three on Saturday.

We've already had the 100m hurdles - here are the remaining events coming up on Friday (all times BST):

10:20 - High jump

12:30 - Shot put

13:38 - 200m

And this is how the event will conclude on Saturday:

04:30 - Long jump

12:00 - Javelin

14:11 - 800m

Harry Poole
BBC Sport in Tokyo

No hanging about for the heptathletes this evening!

After finishing their opening 100m hurdles, they’ve all headed straight over to the high jump which will get under way in about 40 minutes.

From then, they’ve got three events in the space of about three hours, before returning tomorrow morning. They’re made of something else.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson believed there could be a few pinch points for athletes between the high jump, shot put and 200m later - but she believes those demands will feel comfortingly familiar.

"It feels kind of like back to grassroots, when I used to be running around for Liverpool Harriers switching spikes between events.

"It's a bit like [the schedule at the World Championships in] Doha, as well."

That, of course, was the championships where she beat rival Nafi Thiam to win her first world title...

Taliyah Brooks' 12.93 is the only sub-13 second time and sees her lead the early standings.

Jade O'Dowda is seventh, Katarina Johnson-Thompson ninth, and Abigail Pawlett the last of the 23 athletes who started the event.

Serial winner Nafi Thiam of Belgium sits in 15th, while Anna Hall is third - the five fastest times in the hurdles were all in her final heat.

That's got to hurt.

Great Britain's Abigail Pawlett is in the mix in the third heat, but her trailing leg clips the final hurdle and she falls, hitting her head on the track.

She is able to get up and finish last in 14.70 seconds, but understandably looks pretty distressed in the aftermath.

Anna Hall of the United States, another good medal candidate, is third in this heat with a 13.05 season's best, with team mate Taliyah Brooks winning with 12.93.

Emma Oosterwegel of the Netherlands won heat two with a personal best of 13.28.

Ask Me Anything

Image source, Getty Images

Heptathlon is a combination of track and field events, consisting of seven disciplines across a two-day period.

The heptathlon made its Olympic debut at the 1984 Los Angeles games.

It is often considered to be the ultimate all-round test for female athletes.

The events athletes must participate in for the heptathlon are:

• 100m hurdles: Athletes sprint over 10 hurdles along a 100m track. Hurdles are set 8.5m apart
• High jump: Athletes jump over a high horizontal bar. They aim to clear the highest height without the bar dropping
• Shot put: Athletes throw a heavy ball, called the 'shot', as far as possible. The shot weighs 4kg for heptathlon events
• 200m: Athletes run a distance of 200m, which is a half-lap of the track
• Long jump: Athletes sprint down a runway and jump into a sandpit
• Javelin throw: Athletes throw the javelin as far as possible
• 800m: The final event is an 800m run, which requires athletes to complete two laps of the track in the fastest time

Day one consists of the 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m. Day two is the long jump, javelin throw and 800m.

• Read more

We're heading into another exciting day of athletics, and as always, we want to hear your opinions, hot takes and predictions.

Will a Great Britain athlete pick up a medal in the 200m events? Who do you think has the best chance of an 800m win - Keely Hodgkinson or Georgia Hunter Bell?

What have you made of GB's championships so far?

What has been your Tokyo highlight and what are you looking forward to?

Get in touch using #bbcathletics, via WhatsApp on 03301231826 or text 81111 (UK only, standard message rates apply).

Don't forget to pop your name on text messages!

Well, that's a way to start your heptathlon!

Great Britain's Jade O'Dowda wins the first of three 100m hurdles heats with a 13.34 seconds personal best.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson comes in second with a season-best 13.44, the same as Ireland's Kate O'Connor, who runs her own best time.

Season bests in fourth and fifth place for Sveva Gerevani of Italy and triple Olympic champion Nafi Thiam of Belgium with 13.52 and 13.61 respectively.

Image source, Getty Images

Standing in Katarina Johnson-Thompson's way is Nafi Thiam.

The 31-year-old Belgian was last beaten at a major championship in 2019, when she was nursing an elbow injury and surrendered her world title to an inspired KJT. She won world gold for a second time in 2022, missed the 2023 edition because of an Achilles tendon problem and in Paris last year became the first combined events athlete in history to win three Olympic titles.

Thiam skipped the most recent indoor season and didn’t compete outdoors until last month. Little public information has provided any insight into her form and fitness.

Another medal candidate is Anna Hall of the United States, who is looking for world gold after winning bronze in 2022 and silver in 2023.

The 24-year-old moved up to equal second on the world all-time list with a meeting record of 7032 pts at the prestigious Hypo Meeting in Götzis, Austria, three months ago – setting PBs in the high jump, shot put, javelin and 800m. She finished fifth in Paris after coming back from knee surgery.

Meanwhile Great Britain has Jade O’Dowda and Abigail Pawlett in the field. The former, a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, set a PB when seventh at last year’s European Championships, and came 10th at the Olympics. Meanwhile the latter earned European under-23 silver in July.

Image source, Getty Images

Unfinished business?

Katarina Johnson-Thompson returns to the stadium where she thought her career had ended four years ago. The Liverpudlian had suffered a serious Achilles injury eight months before the Tokyo Olympics but was in medal contention at the Games after three events, only to suffer a torn calf in her other leg halfway through the fourth event, the 200m.

“I think I bought into the fact that it was over for me,” she says, reflecting on her cruel luck at the time. She admits to “coasting through 2022; it was protective – I didn’t want to commit myself to something just to get my heart broken again” but she still won Commonwealth gold in a weak field and a year later won a second world title in Budapest, four years after her first.

Last summer, she claimed silver, her first Olympic medal, after a battle royale with Nafi Thiam. The Brit’s total of 6844 pts is the second-best of her career behind the national record of 6981 she set to win her first world title in 2019.

Johnson-Thompson pulled out of the high-profile Gotzis Hypo Meeting at the end of May because of a minor injury but since returning to action in July she has competed in every heptathlon discipline bar 800m.

Gold medal events: 5 - men's triple jump, men's 400m hurdles, women's 400m hurdles, men's 200m, women's 200m

10:00-14:45 - live coverage on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online

17:00-17:30 - highlights on BBC iPlayer, Red Button and online

19:00-19:30 - highlights on BBC Three & BBC iPlayer

There's another busy session in store on day seven of the 2025 World Athletics Championships.

Let's take a look at what's coming up over the next few hours (all times BST):

09:33 - Women's 100m hurdles - heptathlon

10:20 - Women's high jump - heptathlon

11:30 - Women's javelin - qualification group A

12:00 - Men's 5,000m - heats

12:30 - Women's shot put - heptathlon

12:43 - Women's 800m - semi-finals

12:50 - Men's triple jump - final

13:00 - Women's javelin - qualification group B

13:15 - Men's 400m hurdles - final

13:27 - Women's 400m hurdles - final

13:38 – Women's 200m - heptathlon

14:06 - Men's 200m - final

14:22 - Women's 200m - final

Welcome to day seven of the World Athletics Championships from Tokyo.

It's heptathlon time - can Great Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson win a third world title?

She starts her campaign shortly, while there's plenty more to enjoy over the next five hours.

Let's get going.