Katarina Johnson-Thompson still feels like an impostor and demands more from herself to fulfil potential

Even with her face adorning the banners that line the sleepy streets of Gotzis this weekend, Katarina Johnson-Thompson still does not feel she belongs. More than that – she feels like an impostor.

It is a remarkable admission from someone whose performances fully justify her headline status among the world’s leading heptathletes and decathletes who descend on this quiet Austrian countryside town every spring.

Five years have passed since her first Hypo-Meeting triumph here, and three gold medals and a silver in her last four major international competitions have cemented her position as the woman to beat this weekend in the absence of Olympic and world champion Nafi Thiam.

Still, perhaps the myriad slip-ups she has encountered during the biggest competitions of her career run deeper than obviously apparent.

“I was reading up on impostor syndrome the other day,” she admitted on the eve of competition. “My mum sent me an article on it because when she was a dancer she felt the same.

“I don’t know what it will take not to feel like that – I’ll just know when it happens.

“I know I’ve done good in the past couple of years and have turned a corner, but I still want more from myself. I want to reach my potential.”

When Johnson-Thompson last competed here two years ago, the scars of painful failures at the previous Olympics and World Championships were evident in her proclamation that she had undergone a “complete rebuild” to “fall in love” with the sport again.

A personal best with the highest heptathlon score ever to miss a podium helped achieved that, and she has subsequently collected the type of medals that prove herself among the elite: Commonwealth, world indoor and European indoor gold, as well as European outdoor silver behind Thiam. Despite such consistency, niggling doubts endure.

“It’s so strange to be headlining,” she said. “People say stuff like I’m coming here with No1 status, but I still don’t feel like that.

“I just feel like I’ve got a job to do and I don’t feel like I’ve proven myself yet.

“I don’t know what it will take but I just want to reach my full potential and I’m not there yet by a long stretch.”

There remains every sense that this could be the time Johnson-Thompson’s truly asserts her dominance, with Jessica Ennis-Hill this week suggesting her old team-mate is now reaching her peak.

“Jess was 26 when she won the Olympics,” said Johnson-Thompson, who turned 26 in January. “I sort of used [age] as an excuse for Rio as I was only 23.

“I can understand what Jess is saying because I now have a better understanding of the event, and can draw back on a vast amount of experience and different things that have happened.

“I feel I understand myself, my event, my body and all the different techniques now.”

In Thiam’s absence, Johnson-Thompson will rekindle her rivalry with Germany’s Carolin Schafer and Laura Ikauniece, of Latvia, who both beat her the last time she competed in Gotzis in 2017, while American champion Erica Bougard is the other big threat.

Britain’s world junior heptathlon champion Niamh Emerson takes another step up as she lines up in a global senior field for the first time. Emerson, who only turned 20 last month, has won European indoor silver and Commonwealth bronze behind Johnson-Thompson over the past year but admits it is still “pretty cool just seeing all these people I’ve watched on TV”.

Tim Duckworth, 22, also contests his first global senior decathlon, having won European indoor silver earlier this year. He will target a top-eight finish, with Canada’s Damian Warner favourite for a fifth Gotzis title.