Heptathlete announced for the long jump as she works towards contesting the pentathlon at the European Indoor Championships in Prague

Katarina Johnson-Thompson is set to make her return to top class competition at the Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham on February 21.

The heptathlete will compete in the the long jump – the event in which she won world indoor silver last year – as she works towards contesting the pentathlon at the European Indoor Championships in Prague in March.

The No.1 heptathlete in 2014 set her world-leading score of 6682 points when winning at the prestigious Hypo Meeting in Gotzis last June before injury prevented her from competing at the Commonwealth Games or European Championships. She last competed at the Sainsbury’s Glasgow Grand Prix in July. This week organisers also announced that the 21-year-old is to return to Gotzis in May to defend her Hypo Meeting title.

“I m so excited to be back on the track at the Sainsbury s Indoor Grand Prix,” she said. “I ve competed in Birmingham before in the hurdles and I m so happy to be going back to what I think is one of the best indoor competitions you can attend. Especially with the great home crowd I m super excited to be back.”

She added: “At the moment I m still in hard training but I m sure by February I ll be raring to go and hopefully starting back where I left last year because the last competition I did was a home event at the Sainsbury s Glasgow Grand Prix.

“I ve competed in Birmingham at the Sainsbury s Indoor Grand Prix once before and watched it on television every other year so I can see that it s always a good turn out with the crowd getting behind the athletes. It feels like a major championship when competing there so it will definitely help me for three weeks later when it s the European Indoor Championships in Prague.”

Mo Farah, James Dasaolu, Dina Asher-Smith, Jodie Williams, Asha Philip and William Sharman are among the other athletes who have already been confirmed for the Birmingham meeting which will take place at the Barclaycard Arena.

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