Two-time Olympic heptathlon champion Nafissatou Thiam will take a shot at her second world title five years after London, in Eugene.
The 27-year-old travelled to Oregon in good spirits after a very positive internship in Irvine, California, in the company of several members of the Belgian delegation. “Everything went well. It was an excellent way to acclimatize, and especially to adapt to the time difference,” she said on Wednesday.
“Physically everything is going well,” added Thiam, who spoke later than scheduled with the Belgian press due to an unannounced doping test. Since she only arrived in Eugene on Tuesday night, she had not yet had a chance to train at Oregon’s prestigious college campus yet. “I will definitely train there once or twice before I start the heptathlon on Sunday,” she said.
With a personal best of 7,013 points (Götzis 2017), Thiam is the third best heptathlon athlete in history, after American Jackie Joyner-Kersee (7,291 points) and Sweden’s Carolina Klüft (7,032 points).
Unlike other Belgians, Thiam has an individual room in Eugene. “We’re staying on the university campus, so of course it’s all a bit less than in Irvine, where we stayed at a hotel,” explained Thiam, who decided to sleep alone because of the Coronavirus.
Paulien Couckuyt and Thomas De Bock were unable to leave California due to a positive Corona test.
The heptathlon starts on Sunday with the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200 meters. The long jump, javelin and 800 meters follow on Monday. Noor Vidts, the indoor world champion at the Belgrade pentathlon in March, will also be there.
