London 2012 Olympics: Jessica Ennis storms to first day lead in heptathlon

 
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3 August 2012

Jessica Ennis remains on course for Olympic heptathlon glory after turning a sensational start into a 184-point lead following the opening four events in front of a capacity crowd of 80,000.

Ennis ignited the athletics programme at London 2012 with the fastest 100m hurdles ever run in a heptathlon, clocking 12.54 seconds to smash her personal best and break the British record with a time which won individual gold in Beijing.

A clearance of 1.86m in the high jump gave Ennis a 25-point lead after two events, before a world heptathlon best of 17.31m in the shot from Austra Skujyte took the Lithuanian into a 64-point lead.

However, Ennis then set another personal best of 22.83secs in the 200m for a total of 4,158 points, her best ever first-day score and enough for a lead of 184 points over Skujyte.

Ennis said: "I'm so pleased to end the day with that. I knew it was a fast track from the hurdles and I'm made up to run a PB.

"I'm still in shock about the hurdles. It's been a bit up and down but two PBs is great. It's been amazing. The crowd have been unbelievable. They really do lift you. When you run round the bend you can hear the roar.

"I'm going to have to have a really strong day tomorrow with very strong performances."

Equally as important as the lead over 32-year-old Skujyte is the fact that Ennis is a massive 309 points ahead of Russia's Tatyana Chernova, who succeeded the Briton as world champion last year, and 323 clear of defending Olympic champion Nataliya Dobrynska.

A 151-point lead over Chernova at the same stage in Daegu was not enough thanks to a terrible performance from Ennis in the javelin, but after improving this year thanks to coaching from former world bronze medallist Mick Hill, Ennis will be confident of avoiding a repeat.

This year she has struggled more in the long jump after problems caused by too much speed on the runway, while the final event - the 800m - remains one of her strengths.

Team-mate Katarina Johnson-Thompson had been in third place after the 100m hurdles and a personal best of 1.89m in the high jump, but joked afterwards that would not last long due to her weak shot put.

The 19-year-old from Liverpool was proved correct after a best of 11.32m dropped her all the way to 20th place, but a run of 23.73 saw her end the day 14th on 3,769 points, 389 behind Ennis. Commonwealth champion Louise Hazel was down in 34th after a costly best of just 1.59m in the high jump.

Elsewhere in the stadium, Greg Rutherford and Chris Tomlinson qualified for the long jump final in fourth and fifth respectively, while Andy Baddeley and Ross Murray made the semi-finals of the 1,500m.

Baddeley hailed the atmosphere as the best he has ever experienced, adding: "It's the most unbelievable thing ever. The best crowd I've run in before was the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, 83,000 going nuts in a race which (Australia's) Craig Mottram was in.

"But this is something else, to another level, so noisy it's unbelievable. It was a tough heat but it was all about getting in the first six and that's what I made sure I did."

Murray, who was fourth in a quick opening heat in 3:36.74, added: "I'm delighted with that - no-one wants to be that guy who goes out in the heats do they?

"It's brisk but choppy with people cutting across you, you get clipped. I'm a wounded little soldier at the minute but it's all part of the fun.

You've got to give it back and stand your ground, though you can't go overboard though and get yourself disqualified for giving someone a black eye."

Britain's Abi Oyepitan then advanced to the semi-finals of the 100m as one of the fastest losers from the seven heats, but team-mate Anyika Onuora missed out.

Both athletes were fifth in their high-class heats, with Oyepitan clocking 11.22s and Onuora 11.41 as world champion Carmelita Jeter led the qualifiers in a time of 10.83.

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