Seldom are dress rehearsals as exquisite or significant as the one taking place in Rome over the course of the next six days. The majority of the continent’s top track and field athletes are in the Eternal City aiming to make history before the Olympics in Paris next month in addition to chasing a gold medal at the European Athletics Championships. And when it comes to gladiatorial bouts, they don’t get much bigger than the one that begins competition on Friday. Katarina Johnson-Thompson, a double world heptathlon champion from Britain, will take on Nafi Thiam, a double Olympic champion from Belgium, for the first time since 2022.
Although the event is being billed as a “clash of the titans,” with more Greek and Roman mythology in evidence, Johnson-Thompson faces an enormous assignment. Related: Keely Hodgkinson wins the European 800m with a graceful run “Nafi is among the greatest athletes of all time, not just of our generation,” the woman asserts. It seems like not enough has been spoken about it. Everyone’s game will undoubtedly improve with her on the pitch. Not many would contest that. After severe achilles tendon and calf problems seemed to have ended Johnson-Thompson’s career, she surprised virtually everyone by winning the global gold in Budapest last year. Thiam was not present since she had sustained her own achilles injury. It implies that their most recent argument i
