Sprinters through ... Ennis starts well

Great Britain sprint trio Craig Pickering, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis all made light work of their 100 metre heats at the World Championships on Saturday morning.

Pickering, Devonish and Lewis-Francis should have plenty left in the tank for the evening's quarter-finals, after easing through their respective first-round challenges - while heptathlete Jessica Ennis made a solid start to her campaign at the Nagai Stadium and sits second behind defending champion Carolina Kluft after two events.

Ennis made a brilliant start to her campaign, the 21-year-old from Sheffield posting a personal best time of 12.97seconds to win the 100m hurdles and open up a 27 point lead over Kluft.

The Brit produced precision clearances over each of the 10 hurdles, slicing a healthy 0.07secs from her previous best when finishing well clear of Kluft and her own team-mate Kelly Sotherton.

Sweden's Kluft, who is bidding for a third successive gold medal, equalled her lifetime best of 13.15secs - while Sotherton also achieved her fastest ever mark of 13.21secs.

But the all-conquering Swede, looking to extend her 17-event unbeaten streak in Osaka, responded and posted a personal best 1.95m clearance in the high jump to edge ahead after the morning's action.

Ennis, who earlier this year equalled Diana Davies' 25-year-old British high-jump record of 1.95m, while breaking Denise Lewis' British under-23s record by 63 points after amassing 6,388 points to win in Italy, looked comfortable before failing to clear 1.92m - and could only watch as Kluft claimed the overall lead.

Twenty-four-year-old Kluft tops the table on 2,273 points, with Ennis close behind on 2,222 and Sotherton fourth on 2,147 - before this evening's shot putt and 200m.

In the men's 100m heats, Pickering was the first through to the quarter-finals, with a second place behind Antigua's Brenden Christian in 10.24secs - just a 10th-of-a-second outside his personal best.

Devonish, who produced a personal best 10.06secs in Sheffield in July, eased to victory in 10.13secs - and Lewis-Francis progressed, after finishing second to Pan American Games champion Churandy Martina in 10.21secs.