Carolina Kluft, the IAAF World champion, began her quest for Olympic Heptathlon gold this morning in polished style, coming within three-hundredths of a second of her lifetime best in the first of the two-day’s seven disciplines.

And yet the Swede could manage no better than fourth in her 100 metres hurdles heat, as the trio of American athletes, led by Michelle Perry’s 12.75sec, blazed the trail.

Perry, 25, from California, is well known for her hurdling - she was fourth in that event at the last Pan American Games. By equalling her lifetime hurdles best and scoring 1164pts, the American made an impressive start to her Olympic career, with team mates Sheila Burrell (13.13sec; 1105pts) and Tiffany Lott Hogan (13.17; 1099) all nipping in ahead of the World-ranked No.1 Kluft’s 13.21 for 1093pts in a smoky opening to the event.

Marsha Mark-Baird, from Trinidad and Tobago, won the second heat in 13.57, and Britain’s Denise Lewis, the defending Olympic champion, took heat three with a season’s best 13.40 (1065pts), with the IAAF World Indoor champion, Naide Gomes, of Portugal, clocking a personal best 13.58 for 1039, and Sonja Kesselschlaeger, of Germany, was delighted with her 13.40 clocking to win the fifth and final heat.

The sole casualty of the hurdles was Russia’s Tatyana Gordeyeva, who failed to finish in heat two.

With 20 of the 34 women starting this event managing opening scores of 1,000 points or more, the stage seems well set for the most competitive in-depth Olympic Heptathlon since Glynis Nunn won the event when it was first staged in Los Angeles 20 years ago.

Under the cruel midday sun, the Heptathletes continued to duel it out in the High Jump, the day’s second discipline. This would be as much about conservation of energy for the battles ahead as it was delivering an explosive jump for points in this discipline.

Standing supreme among them all was the World champion, Carolina Kluft, who after more than three hours of competition, had the narrowest of failures on her third attempt at a lifetime best-equalling 1.94 metres. Until that point, Kluft had cleared every height at her first attempt. She nonetheless scored strongly enough, with 1119 points for her 1.91m clearance, to take the two-event lead at 2212pts.

“I feel really good,” Kluft said as she left the stadium for a well-earned break.

“I was unlucky on my last attempt, but I’m still very happy with the way things have gone.”

With more than 30 athletes competing, this was a long, drawn out affair - Denise Lewis, the Sydney gold medallist, for instance, had to wait out in the arena for an hour before entering the competition at 1.67m.

All the women had to find what shade they could, and possibly some sun block factor 30, to take care that they did not broil in the heat as temperatures touched the high-30s centigrade with not a cloud in the Athenian blue sky.

Kluft’s challengers did what they could to stay in contention. World Indoor Pentathlon champion Naide Gomes, from Portugal, came within a centimetre of her lifetime best with 1.85m (1041) to move into fourth place overall on 2080, while Natalya Sazanovich, of Belarus, and Lewis both cleared 1.73 for 891pts, giving them totals 1908 and 1956 respectively.

But the surprise packages were Kelly Sotherton, Lewis’s training partner, and the Dutchwoman, Karin Ruckstuh. Both managed 1.85 for personal bests to score 1041pts and put them into joint second place after two events (2100).

Sheila Burrell, the US champion who, after an injury-ravaged 2003, is not in the top 50 of the IAAF World Rankings, also surpassed herself. She cleared 1.70m at a third attempt, 3cm better than she managed three years ago when winning the bronze medal at the World Championships in Edmonton to give herself a 1954pt total in 15th, one position behind Lewis.

Burrell’s team mate, Michelle Perry, the leader after the first event, also cleared 1.70m for a PB and 855pts, slipping to sixth on the overall positions (2019).

Jumping herself into medal contention was the 22-year-old Ukrainian, Natalya Dobrynska, who matched her lifetime best 1.82m for 1003pts to overtake both Lewis and Burrell - and as a former shot putter, she was already looking forward to the next event with relish.

Bubbling under these was the Greek, Aryiro Strataki, whose every jump was cheered to the rafters of the Olympic stadium by the partisan crowd who stayed into lunchtime to watch their favourite’s progress, as she matched her personal best with 1.79m to climb up the rankings to 11th place.

But the Russians, having already lost Tatyana Gordeyeva after she failed to finish the hurdles, now suffered another blow to their medal hopes as Svetlana Sokolova, the national champion, fouled out at 1.73m.

That gave her just 1.70m for 855pts, 12cm and 148pts down on what she cleared to win the Russian title, when she went on to score 6591 overall, the second-best performance of the year so far.

Kluft thanked her loyal fan club for their support. “They were fantastic,” she said, “a huge help.

“I was a bit tense before the hurdles this morning,” the 21-year-old Swede said, “because I was concerned about racing against such fast sprinters. But by the end, I’d relaxed and was running OK.”

The Heptathlon continues tonight at 7.30pm local time with the Shot Put, the third of the seven disciplines, and one in which defending champion Lewis, who has a best of more than 16 metres, will hope to make serious in-roads into the points advantage of her rivals.

There is no stopping Carolina Kluft.

A huge Shot Put personal best in the third event of the Heptathlon, with 14.77 metres, put the 21-year-old Swede firmly in control of the seven-event test of the best all-round athlete, with a three-event total of 3057 points.

Behind Kluft, though, the battle for other medals was tight, with 10 points separating third place, and a possible Olympic bronze medal, and fifth place.

Austra Skujyte, from Lithuania, won the Shot with a season’s best 16.40m (955pts; 2857pts total), propelling her from 21st position after two events into third place, leap frogging ahead of Karin Ruckstuhl (13.37m; 752pts; 2852 total) and Kelly Sotherton (13.29; 747; 2847).

Nadia Gomes, Portugal’s World Indoor champion, gave her own chances a boost with a 14.71m personal best for 841pts and a total of 2921 - but 136pts adrift of Kluft.

In sixth place with 2839, and up from 14th, was Denise Lewis, the defending champion, although her 15.33m put, nearly a metre down on her best, would not have satisfied her.

Natalya Sazanovich, bronze medal-winner in Sydney four years ago and a medal-winner in all her seven previous championship multi-events, had hobbled down the tunnel out of the stadium after the High Jump earlier in the day with an injury, and did not re-appear for the Shot Put, her Olympic dream over.

There were tears and controversy as the Olympic Heptathlon reached the halfway stage.

Tiffany Lott Hogan had been the leading American challenger after three events, placed 11th overall. But she was crying when she walked off the track when she missed the start of her 200 metres heat. Her protests that she had raised her arm when in her blocks to signal she was not ready were initially rejected, but a quick decision by the judges saw the 2003 Pan American Games champion given another chance to race in a later heat.

Lott Hogan’s team mate, Michelle Perry, winner of the 100m Hurdles this morning, revived her Olympic bid with a stunning 22.93 heat win and personal best, to score 1088pts for a halfway total of 3721 (7th position).

But Carolina Kluft was chasing Perry all the way to the line, her 23.27sec effort giving the World champion an overnight score of 4109 and a lead of 240 points on her nearest rival, Kelly Sotherton.

The Briton equalled her 23.57personal best for a halfway total of 3869 - dragging her back in front of her Dutch rival, Karin Ruckstuhl, who ended the first day with 3777 after running 24.59sec, and also overtaking Naide Gomes, whose 25.46 run gave her only 845pts for 3766, while Austra Skujyte also slipped back, her 24.82 bringing her overall score to 3760.

And Lott Hogan? She got her run, and clocked 24.99, to end the day with 3634pts but, more importantly, get to continue living the life of an Olympic competitor for another day.

"It is a tough game plus it is very hot," said Klüft. "Now I am very tired. I have to get a good sleep....The Shot Put was a lot of fun, I am beginning to like it more and more. The 200m was not perfect but you have to take into account the heat and that I was running in lane 3."

The nerves started showing this morning, even from Carolina Klüft.

Sweden’s outstanding leader of the Olympic Heptathlon went into the second day with a 240-point lead.

But a no jump with her first attempt in the fifth discipline, the Long Jump, was unsettling, if not for Klüft, then for the huge morning session crowd..

A year ago, at the World Championships in Paris, Klüft had taken things to the edge, enduring two red flags and risking elimination from the overall competition.

This time, Klüft was not prepared to stretch her nerves so far, and on her second approach run, she tip-toed down the runway with care and precision, but relatively little speed. Her virtual standing jump still went out to 6.54 metres, the best of the competition thus far.

With less pressure on her third leap, Klüft nailed an effort at 6.78m for another 1099 points. Effectively, barring a disaster in the Javelin, the gold medal is as good as hers.

But the edginess also affected Britain's Kelly Sotherton, who held the silver medal position overnight. Another strong long jumper, Sotherton had two foul jumps. With everything resting on her final effort, she too took the careful approach. She held her head in her hands in relief when the judge raised the white flag to signal a good jump, and the measurement showed 6.51m.

Klüft’s five-event tally is therefore 5208pts, with Sotherton on 4879, extending her advantage over her rivals to 176pts, as Lithuania’s Austra Skujte moved into third from fifth place, on 4703, thanks to a 6.30m best jump.

Sonja Kesselschlaeger, of Germany, took delight in her best jump in the final round, 6.42m, a personal best, which propelled her to within sight of a medal, on 4672, ahead of Portugal’s Naide Gomes on 4646 after only managing 6.10m, well down on her best.

Karin Ruckstuhl, the overnight third placer, also saw her medal hopes fade, as a modest 5.90m jump was followed by two fouls - 819pts only from the Long Jump leaves the Dutchwoman on 4596, with just the Javelin and the 800 metres to come in tonight’s session. 

NOTE Britain's defending Olympic Games Heptathlon champion  Denise Lewis withdrew from the event after the fifth discipline. Lewis could only reach a modest 5.89 metres in the Long Jump.
 
"I'm physically and emotionally devastated. I can't do myself
justice," said Lewis. She was lying 18th with 4504 points when she withdrew."

Sweden's Carolina Kluft set herself up for two laps of honour later tonight in the final event of the Heptathlon, the 800 metres, when, with her third-round javelin throw, she sent the spear out to 48.89 metres, a season’s best and heavy with enough points, 839pts, to make a final total of 7000 a possibility.

But if the outcome of the Olympic gold medal seems certain, much still depended on the outcome of the Javelin.

With this being one of Britain's Kelly Sotherton’s weaker events, a big throw from Austra Skujyte, the Lithuanian who was 176 points adrift of the silver medal position after five events, would open matters up once again.

And so it proved, for as Skujyte exceeded her previous best, earning herself 852pts for her 49.58m throw, Sotherton managed a meagre 37.19m. With the addition of only 613pts, the Briton had lost second place, with a total of 5492 giving her a lot to chase in the 800m.

Sheila Burrell (5408) and Margaret Simpson of Ghana (5398) thnaks to good throws - 47.69; 53.32 - moved into fourth and fifth respectively.

They played Abba’s Dancing Queen as Carolina Kluft led the multi-eventers around the Olympic stadium to take the applause of the packed, 70,000-capacity Olympic stadium.

The crowd was able to acknowledge that Kluft, the new Heptathlon queen, had shown over the course of two days that here was a great, charismatic talent and one who may be around for many years to come.

Kluft, at 21, is now Olympic gold medallist, IAAF World champion and the European champion, having won her latest honour by accumulating 6952pts, following a final 800m in 2:14.15 for 905 points. How that 7000-point barrier beckons.

Credit was due in the 800m to Kelly Sotherton, the novice Briton, who gave determined chase for the silver medal by setting off a great pace.

Sotherton finished the final 800m heat in 2:12.27, good enough to secure bronze with 6424pts, by 11 short of the final total of Austra Skujte.

On a famous night for Lithuanian sport - the national basketball team had defeated the United States in their Olympic clash - 25-year-old Skujte had secured the first Olympic medal for a woman from her country, her 2:15.92 800m effort gaining her the 880pts for her final total of 6435.

In the history of Olympic Heptathlon, only Jackie Joyner-Kersee has ever managed to score more points than Kluft managed here in Athens. It can only be a matter of time!