To some, it has taken longer than expected for Johnson-Thompson to reach this level, with errors costing her medals at previous championships, coupled with the emergence of Thiam.
When double world and 2012 Olympic champion Ennis-Hill was coming towards the end of her career, the focus turned to the young pretender to continue the great recent tradition of British heptathlon success. But luck and form kept deserting Johnson-Thompson.
She finished well down the heptathlon field at the 2015 Worlds after three fouls in the long jump, while below-par performances in the shot put and javelin cost her a medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
At the London 2017 World Championships, she underperformed in one of her favourite events – the high jump – which again damaged her podium hopes.
By this stage she had moved her training base to Montpellier in France, where she has been coached by Bertrand Valcin, who also works with Kevin Mayer, the world record holder in the decathlon.
Johnson-Thompson finally began to see positive effects from the move last year when she won the World Indoor pentathlon gold and the Commonwealth title before taking silver behind Thiam at the European Championships in Berlin.
A new personal-best score of 6,813 followed in winning at the traditional multi-event Gotzis meeting this year, and now she has eclipsed all of her previous achievements with success in Doha.
