British title hope Jessica Ennis, a poster girl for the London Olympics, set personal bests in the 100m hurdles and 200m to take pole position in the heptathlon on the opening day of athletics Friday.
The former world champion, who most recently won silver medals in the 2011 worlds in Daegu and world indoor pentathlon in Turkey in March, missed the Beijing Games through injury, and is under massive pressure to perform from an expectant public.
Ennis did not disappoint, beating her personal best by 0.25sec as she set a new British record of 12.54sec in the 100m hurdles, raced in brilliant sunshine in front of an 80,000-capacity crowd at the Olympic Stadium.
"I'm absolutely made up with today," Ennis said. "To perform like that with two personal bests was a brilliant start.
"It's a combination of a hard, fast track and obviously it's the Olympics and having this huge crowd behind everyone makes a huge difference.
"I knew coming into this I was in good shape but to be honest I couldn't have imagined performing like this. I've definitely exceeded my expectations today."
To put her hurdles time into perspective, it was faster than American Kellie Wells' victory in the 100m hurdles at last month's London Diamond League meeting, in which world champion Sally Pearson was beaten into second.
It also matched American Dawn Harper's winning time in the individual hurdles at the Beijing Games in 2008.
"I can't believe I ran that time. It was a great start," Ennis said.
"I just felt ready. I'd done all the hard work in the training, and hurdles has been going well so I knew I was in shape to run a good time but didn't quite think I'd run that quick."
It was the perfect start in the gruelling seven-discipline event for Ennis, who cleared 1.86m in the high jump for 2,249 points.
The 26-year-old managed a best of 14.28m in the shot put but Lithuanian Austra Skujyte took the momentary lead after she nailed a massive 17.31m in the shot to add to her leading 1.92m in the high jump.
But Ennis ensured she took the overnight lead when she raced to a personal best of 22.83sec in the 200m, to the delight of the vociferous crowd. Skujyte could only manage 25.43sec.
The Sheffield-born athlete will start Saturday's action -- the long jump, javelin and 800m -- on 4,158 points.
Of her hopes for the day ahead, Ennis said: "Just having three really solid performances and doing what I know I'm capable of.
"It's been great but there's still a lot more to work on for tomorrow."
Skutjyte is sitting second on 3,974pts, 184 adrift, with Canada's Jessica Zelinka in third, a further 71 off Ennis.
Defending Olympic champion Natallia Dobrynska of Ukraine, who won the 2012 world indoor pentathlon title in a world record total just days before her husband and coach Dmytro Polyakov died, was in 10th position on 3,835pts, 323 off Ennis.
Russian world champion Tatyana Chernova sat in ninth on 3,849pts.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ennis-sets-pace-fastest-ever-heptathlon-100m-hurdles-095403957--oly.html
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