Commonwealth champion Kelly Sotherton (Birchfield Harriers) was second behind the Olympic, World and European champion Carolina Kluft after the first day of the heptathlon at the Hypo-meeting in Gotzis, Austria, on Saturday 26 May.

After racing into head winds, the Swede totalled 3936 points, Sotherton 3819, third placed Austra Skujyte (Lithuania) 3781 and Julie Hollman (Belgrave Harriers) 3414 for 23^rd place in the high quality field.

Kluft assumed dominance from the opening event. Despite a head wind of 1.4 metres per second in their heat, she won in 13.27 seconds with Sotherton third in 13.40, within 18-hundredths of her quickest ever.

Kluft extended her lead in the high jump, clearing 1.85m to Sotherton’s 1.82m. Similarly in the shot, Kluft reached 14.34m to Sotherton’s 13.99m.

And it was the same story in the day’s fourth and final event, the 200m (into a head wind of 1.3 metres per second): Kluft first in 23.86 seconds, Sotherton second in 24.24.

Hollman sprinted 100m hurdles in 14.18 seconds in a heat in which the wind officially dropped to 0.0 metres per second; cleared 1.76m in the high jump; reached 12.05m in the shot and sprinted her 200m (in a heat in which the head wind was a massive 2.6 metres per second) in 25.20 seconds.

For the full results please click here