Rio 2016: Katarina Johnson-Thompson puts her long jump demons behind at the Anniversary Games
23 year-old blew her heptathlon chances at the Worlds last summer when she suffered three no jumps
KATARINA JOHNSON-THOMPSON showed she had finally put her long jump demons behind her at the Olympic Stadium.
She beat current world individual silver medallist and British team-mate Shara Proctor to win the event at the Anniversary Games with a season's best of 6.84m.
The 23 year-old blew her heptathlon chances at the World Championships in Beijing last summer when she suffered three no jumps and had to be consoled by Olympic gold medallist Jessica Ennis-Hill who went on to take the world crown too.
The Liverpudlian only got the qualifying mark for Rio in May when she again stuttered in the long jump during a seven-event competition .
Johnson-Thompson, who will face Ennis-Hill again in the Olympic heptathlon in three weeks, said: "I'm happy with that! There was good consistency throughout my jumps and it's obviously good to get the win on this stage.
"It gives me confidence as I focus on the heptathlon at the Olympic Games. Gold will not be easy for anyone and I've got to step up to the competition."
Ennis-Hill, who was also using the event as a warm-up before she defends her Olympic crown in Rio next month, had to settle for seventh with a best effort of 6.19m.
The Sheffield athlete, who set a personal best of 6.63m in Germany last month, said: "I'm in a good place going into Rio but I would have loved to have jumped further today. I would liked to have got closer to my personal best but it reminds me there is still a bit of work to do. I just need to sharpen up now."
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Her coach Toni Minichiello admitted: "I haven't spoken to Jess yet but I'm happy I'm not travelling back to Sheffield with her today because she will be frustrated. She's been training better than that."