1 hour ago
1
"It's just not quite there for Kat at the moment," Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford said on BBC TV.
"She doesn't really know, I don't think, where she is [fitness-wise]. She's been training of course but until you get into competition and stress the body, you don't know.
"It's a good performance under the little that we know about what shape she is currently in."
Johnson-Thompson achieved the sixth global podium of her career at last year's World Championships - and her third in as many years since recovering from a devastating Achilles rupture.
But she withdrew from the Commonwealth Games last month to focus on being in shape for the Europeans after battling to be fit following an unspecified injury.
The heptathlon continues later with the shot put and 200m events completing the first day of competition, before the long jump, javelin and 800m take place on Saturday.
Johnson-Thompson will seek to limit her losses in the shot put - typically one of her weakest events - as she trails leader Sulek-Schubert by 141 points, and the podium places by 80.
