Morning
The IAAF World Indoor Championships kicked off with a bang yesterday after some impressive displays from the opening day.
The morning session mainly consisted of qualifying of certain events with most of Team GB in amongst those involved.
First up was the Womenís high jump with favourite Anna Chicherova easily clearing over 1.95 to guarantee an appearance in the final.
The triple jump was also the one to watch out for, with no Brittney Reese involved, current indoor champion Olga Rypakova had to settle for second in qualification when Great Britainís YamilÈ Aldama jumped a seasons best of 14.62, with her first jump to make the final.
Joe Thomas and Andrew Osagie also comfortably made it through their heats to make the semi-finals of the 800m while Richard Buck and Nigel Levine also followed suit but in the 400m.
The womenís 400m also showed that it will be a very close encounter with both Shana Cox and Nadine Okyere safely making it through, but with the likes of Sanya Richards-Ross and Natasha Hastings running in fine form itíll be a tough semi-final for sure.
European 3000m champion Helen Clitheroe also booked her place in the final after finishing fourth in a tough heat, with Nataliya Tobias the one to watch.
There was frustration in the 1500m however with Lewis Moses, running hard but looking like the pace was just too much and finished in ninth place, six places from automatic qualification.
The menís heptathlon began with the same intensity as some of the morning races had with Ashton Eaton starting his weekend in fine form.
Opening his 60m time of 6.79s and a personal best leap of 8.16m in the long jump he was already setting an unassailable lead.
But it was all about Jessica Ennis in the morning session, blitzing over the hurdles in 7.91 seconds, the fastest any female has ran in a pentathlon.
She gave the travelling British fans a scare when she took three attempts to clear 1.87m, but revitalised them all with a huge personal best throw of 14.79 to set up an exciting final two events come the afternoon session.
Afternoon
Up first in the afternoon were the 60m hurdles where there was a lot of controversy regarding the starting gun.
Athletes in lane seven and eight complained that they couldnít hear the gun properly when set off, but the officials reassured them that everything was fine.
On the hurdled straight, standout performances from Team Captain Tiffany Porter easily bagged a spot on the semi-final with a time of eight seconds flat.
Italyís Marzia Caravelli and Belarusí Alina Talay also automatically qualified, but it would be in-form Sally Pearson who powered through to tomorrowís final with a rapid time of 7.85 seconds and strong favourite to add to her World Outdoor title she won in Daegu, expect a very fast time to be ran here also.
Sticking with the sprints, the menís 60m heats arrived, Dwain Chambers was Great Britainís only representative in the event and he safely made it through to the next round, winning his heat in 6.65.
Jamaicanís Nesta Carter (6.74s) also made it through along with Americaís Trell Kimmons (6.70s) and Justin Gatlin (6.64s). The final is due to take place tomorrow evening.
The menís long jump sadly didnít have anyone from Team GB but what will be noted is a World Leading jump of 8.28m from Brazilís Mauro Vinicius da Silva.
Fan favourite Mo Farah was made to work hard in his 3000m heat, finishing second, he had to come from fourth place after being boxed in for most of the race sharing his heat with current indoor champion Bernard Lagat, they were piped to the post by Kenyaís Augustine Kiprono Choge.
Cue the semi-finals of the 400m, starting with the women. Shana Cox ran her race very well and with maturity, crossing the line in 52.69 seconds, but despair for debutant Nadine Okyere who, impressing over the winter and in her heat just couldnít quite hold her form and was ran out the race by a very resilient Sanya Richards-Ross.
Team GB didnít have any luck come the menís semi ñfinals either, after Nigel Levine and Richard Buck impressed in the morning session, they just looked like they ran out of steam and both finished in third in their races.
There was one final that was taking place during the afternoon and that was the menís Shot Put which proved to be just as entertaining as any of the events on display today.
Germanyís David Strol set the pace by launching a monstrous personal best of 21.88m, but come round five he was toppled by an even greater distance.
USAís Ryan Whiting picked up a World leading distance of 22m to bag his first gold in a major competition and tie up the field events nicely.
Cue mass attention to the mutli-events, where the menís heptathlon just began with current world record pointís holder Ashton Eaton looks on course to smash his own record again with two more fantastic performances.
He threw a distance of 14.56m in the shot put and then to cap it all off he glided over the high jump bar at a distance of 2.03m.
But the moment the crowd had been waiting for, the final event of the womenís pentathlon.
Ennisí lead was cut short after a poor long jump with a distance of 6.19m leaving her in a difficult position, she needed Natalia Dobrynska to finish six seconds behind her and at one point it looked like she did it with a very strong last 200m.
But as she lofted her hands to celebrate the big screen displayed Dobrynskaís World Record points total of 5013, the first women to pass the 5000 total.
Ennis should not be too disappointed, she may have lost another title but it took a world record to beat her, on top of that she set a new National Record, sheíll be back.
