Jessica Ennis of Great Britain leads the field in the 60m Hurdles Pentathlon (© Getty Images)
2009 Berlin World champion in Heptathlon, Briton Jessica Ennis is in total control of the women’s Pentathlon already after the first event, the 60m Hurdles. The 24-year-old was the favourite to win the 60m Hurdles, but she did not only do that but also put more points between her and the others than expected.
Ennis had a good start to the race leading clearly at halfway winning in 8.04 result, the second fastest time of her career in this distance for 1120 points from the first event. This result also means that she still has a possibility to break the World indoor record (4991p by Irina Belova RUS 1992) and also become the first athlete to go over 5000 points in this event.
American Hylean Fountain, one of the medal favourites, also started well clocking 8.20 for second place, but with 1084 points she is already 36 adrift from Ennis.
Antoinette Nana Djimou Ida of France was third in 8.26, but she will hardly fight for a medal here. Polish Karolina Tyminska was fourth in 8.48 and medal favourite duo Ukrainian Olympic champion Nataliya Dobrynska and Russian Tatyana Chernova clocked 8.50 and 8.51 respectively and fell a bit back from their best results. But they are still definitely fighting for the medals and the next event, the High Jump will tell a lot about who is going to do well today.
Marina Goncharova of Russia equalled her personal best 8.56 and Aiga Grabuste of Latvia is way back from the others in eighth place after the first event as she started quite slowly in 8.94.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
