Katarina leaps to silver

Britain claimed their third medal of the World Indoor Championships on Sunday as Liverpool's Katarina Johnson-Thompson won a superb silver in the long jump.

Johnson-Thompson was prevented from qualifying for the pentathlon in Sopot due to illness, but was on course for gold after taking the lead with a second-round leap of 6.81 metres, a new personal best.

The 21-year-old was only denied victory by France's Eloyse Lesueur, who produced a jump of 6.85m in the fourth round. Serbia's Ivana Spanovic took bronze with a best of 6.77m, while Britain's Shara Proctor was fourth with 6.68m.

There was disappointment in the pole vault as Chorley's medal prospect Holly Bleasdale could only finish ninth after failing to clear 4.65m.

Bleasdale failed twice at her opening height of 4.45m, but the reigning European indoor champion cleared it at the final attempt and then 4.55m at the first.

Johnson-Thompson won the world junior long jump title in Barcelona in 2012 but was quick to stress: "I just want to make sure everyone knows I'm a heptathlete!

"I can't believe it. I came here with no expectations and thought if everyone had a bad day I might be in with a chance of a medal. I'm happy with the silver and it does make up for missing the pentathlon, although it killed me watching it on Friday and I got quite down about it."

Bleasdale missed the World Championships in Moscow last year due to injury but had performed well this season, achieving three clearances of 4.71m or higher.

"I'm really really gutted," she said. "I felt great coming in and had the most amazing warm up but it was just not my day. I need to look back with my coach and see what happened.

"I'm really frustrated and really upset. I felt like I had been on a long road back from my injury to come here and perform and it's not gone well. But I'll learn from it and improve as I always do.

"We all have setbacks and this is a big one for me but the Commonwealths and Europeans are coming up outdoors - they're really big Games for me and I really want to get things right and do well there."