Reigning Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill leads the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships after the first four events. Ennis-Hill is in a commanding position in Beijing, her first major championships since London 2012, due to strong performances in the 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m.
Few were expecting Ennis-Hill to perform so well so quickly, given she gave birth to son Reggie just 13 months ago, but she always said she would only go to the championships if she had a realistic chance of medaling. And she seems on track to do just that, after opening with a solid 12.91 seconds in the 100m hurdles, second only to Dutch athlete Nadine Visser.
The 29-year-old then performed well in the high jump, matching her seasons best of 1.86m, before throwing a decent distance of 13.73m in the shot put. And in the final event of the day, she ran a good time of 23.42 seconds in the 200m, finishing second behind Johnson-Thompson.
Compatriot and possibly favourite, Katarina Johnson-Thompson moved up from ninth place to end the first day in second. The 22-year-old is making her comeback after a series of injuries, which forced her to miss the recent Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, had a mixed first day after requiring three attempts to clear her opening height of 1.80m in the high jump before clearing 1.89m to finish top in that discipline.
Johnson-Thompson scored personal bests in the 100m hurdles (13.37 seconds) and shot put (12.47m) but was sitting in ninth with just the 200m to go on day one. A strong performance of 23.08 seconds meant that she is in second place with three events left.
Heptathlon End Of Day One Points:
Ennis-Hill = 4005
Johnson-Thompson = 3925
Visser = 3871
Theisen-Eaton = 3865
Ennis-Hill = 4005
Johnson-Thompson = 3925
Visser = 3871
Theisen-Eaton = 3865