A drone crash was the least of Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s concerns as she made an underwhelming start to her challenge for a European Championship medal in Birmingham.After three disciplines, the 33-year-old was placed 15th and offering little indication she has fully recovered race sharpness from the calf niggle that ruled her out of the Commonwealth Games.Serving as a portent of the hiccups that lay ahead, Johnson-Thompson’s first event, the 100m hurdles, was delayed during surreal scenes when a drone fly-by went hilariously wrong. In attempting to pass underneath the barriers, the driver lost his bearings and crashed into one of the hurdles.When the gun finally set the field loose, Johnson-Thompson clocked 14sec – her worst time in 14 years of competing in major championships. From there, she regained some ground by clearing 1.83m in the high jump, allowing the two-time world gold medallist to climb to 10th, before tumbling four spots with a disappointing 12.79m in the shot put – 165cm short of her best.Poland’s Adrianna Sulek-Schubert leads from Ireland’s Kate O’Connor.Meanwhile, World Athletics president Lord Sebastian Coe has played down rumours that low crowds in Birmingham could harm London’s bid to host the 2029 World Championships. Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s heptathlon hopes got off to a strange start when her 100m hurdles race was delayed by a camera drone crashThe Alexander Stadium, with a capacity of 23,000, was almost half-empty during some sessions earlier in the week, which has sparked awkward questions at a time when UK Athletics is bidding against Rome, Nairobi and Munich for the bigger event in three years.Asked if pictures of empty seats in Birmingham might influence panel members looking at London’s presentation, Lord Coe said: ‘Look, it’s horses for courses. We had London (Olympics) in 2012, London (world championships) in 2017, London will point to having sold out Diamond League five months before the event took place. So I think it was a challenge. It’s always a challenge starting a championship on a Monday morning.’