Carolina Kluft, winner of the 60 metres hurdles, the first event in the Pentathlon at the 9th IAAF World Indoor Championships, claimed her second personal best of the morning in winning the high jump here in Birmingham with 1.89m, as she extended her overall lead.
The high jump, starting less than an hour after the women had left the track following the 60m hurdles, looked to be Kluft's opportunity to extend her early advantage - on paper, the 20-year-old Swede had a PB of 1.87m, 7cm better than her closest overall rival, the defending champion Natalya Sazanovich, of Belarus.
And with just a failure on her opening jump at 1.74, an aberration, Kluft led the competition throughout, including a first-time clearance at at 1.83, along with Portugal's European indoor silver medallist, Naide Gomes. Guaranteed at least 1016pts, this pair, plus Sazanovich, after a PB, and Marie Colonville, of France, now moved the bar to 1.86 metres and a possible score of 1054pts. Anyone missing out on the extra points here would have a lot of ground to make up through the day's remaining three disciplines.
So when Kluft cleared 1.86 at her second attempt, the Swede's bid to add a World Indoor title to her two World Junior championships seemed to be well on course, with Collonville adding 2cm to her lifetime best just to keep on terms as both Sazanovich and Gomes failed out.
As Collonville failed at 1.89, Kluft went on to set her second lifetime best of the morning on her second attempt, and so score 1093pts - putting her on 2179pts, already 99pt clear of Sazanovich (2080), with Collonville now third (2058) from Gomes (2033), as they headed off for the Shot Put.
