Katarina Johnson-Thompson set a personal best and a European Indoor Championships best to take pole position in the pentathlon ahead of Friday’s final two events in Glasgow.
The world indoor champion – who was favourite for the gold in the absence of Belgian Olympic champion Nafi Thiam – finished second behind France’s hurdles specialist Solene Ndama in the opening event, running 8.27 seconds over the 60 metres hurdles.
The Liverpudlian dominated in the high jump, setting a mark of 1.96m to move top, and she did enough in the shot put to lead Ndama by 118 points after the morning session at the Emirates Arena despite ranking 10th with a personal best of 13.15m.
British world junior champion Niamh Emerson was third at the interval – just seven points off Ndama – after setting personal bests in the hurdles (8.54 secs), equalling her personal best of 1.87m in the long jump and throwing a personal best of 13.93m in the shot put.
Scots Andrew Butchart and Chris O’Hare delighted their home crowd to comfortably qualify for the 3,000m final. Butchart finished behind fastest qualifier Jakob Ingebrigtsen in his heat, posting seven minutes 51.28 secs, while O’Hare won the second heat in 7:53.59. Sam Atkin also qualified.
Another Scot, Eilidh Doyle, finished third in her 400m heat but qualified as one of the fastest losers. Amber Anning finished just outside the 18 semi-final qualifiers.
Robbie Fitzgibbon and Neil Gourley qualified for the 1,500m final but fellow
Briton Elliot Giles just missed out. Former European champion Filip Ingebrigtsen was disqualified for stepping outside the track, while his brother, Jakob, was the fastest qualifier.
Britons Owen Smith and Cameron Chalmers qualified for the 400m semi-finals in eighth and ninth place respectively, while Adelle Tracey finished second overall in the heats for the 800m after trailing Swiss Selina Buchel in her heat. Briton’s Mari Smith also reached the semi-finals.
Chris Baker qualified for the high jump final with a leap of 2.25m.
