Katarina Johnson-Thompson misses out on heptathlon medal after fifth-placed finish at World Championships

The 24-year-old was tipped to make the podium in London but could not recover from an awful high jump on Saturday

The Briton looks on after missing out on a medal (Getty)

Katarina Johnson-Thompson missed out on a heptathlon medal at the World Championships on a day to forget for British athletes.

The 24-year-old was tipped to make the podium in London but could not recover from an awful high jump on Saturday and finished fifth.

She was 240 points adrift of third-placed Anouk Vetter going into the 800 metres on Sunday night after five events and needed an unlikely result which never happened.

Johnson-Thompson fell 18 centimetres short of her high jump personal best on Saturday and, despite coming second in the long jump, never looked likely to mount a stunning comeback.

She was the biggest casualty on Sunday night as none of the British athletes made their finals in the evening session to pile the pressure on Laura Muir to win a medal in the 1500m final on Monday.

Johnson-Thompson clocked two minutes 08.10 seconds in the 800m to come second to record a total of 6558 points, with Olympic champion Nafi Thiam winning with 6784 points.

London 2012 heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill collected her 2011 World Championships gold medal - denied her at the time by Russian drug cheat Tatyana Chernova - on Sunday before Johnson-Thompson finished.

The 31-year-old offered to help her former team-mate and feels Johnson-Thompson will stick with her decision to train in France, rather than opt to link up with Ennis-Hill's former coach Toni Minichiello.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson struggled for form in London (Getty Images)

"I would offer advice if she came to me and if she wanted to hear my experiences. But the mental side of things is quite a hard thing to master and that is part of our event, unfortunately," she said.

"Every athlete is made up so differently and it's something that she's struggled with.

"I've not sat down and spoken to her about how she feels going into events. So, it's hard for me to say what the problem is and why she's finding it so difficult. I'd have to speak to her.

"Toni is a fantastic coach. He's been brilliant for me throughout my career and we've worked really well together.

"I definitely deserve an extra medal for having him coaching me for that long because he can be hard work!

"She could definitely take advice from him but it's her decision, it's her path that she wants to take and she's made a big decision to move to France already and I'm imagining she's going to want to see that through a bit longer and see where that takes her next year."


 Johnson-Thompson was let down by her poor high jump performance
 (Getty)

There was also bitter disappointment for Andrew Pozzi, the European Indoor 60m hurdle champion, who failed to make the 110m hurdle final.

The 25-year-old was expected to qualify but clipped the ninth hurdle to lose his momentum to only finish in 13.28 secs.

He said: "I've been running fast so you have to take away that I didn't do what I should have done. Undoubtedly things will improve but I was ready to make the final and that's the bottom line.

"I cleared 10 but once you decelerate it's hard and the others were carrying a little bit more."

Elsewhere, the women's sprinters of Asha Philip, Desiree Henry and Daryll Neita failed to reach the 100m semi-final and Matthew Hudson-Smith ran a season's best in the 400m but also did not progress, while Holly Bradshaw missed out on a medal in the pole vault.