Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katarina Johnson-Thompson make blistering starts in Beijing

ByDesmond Kane

Updated 22/08/2015 at 15:40 GMT

Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katarina Johnson-Thompson occupy the top two spots in the heptathlon as Great Britain enjoyed a strong start to the World Athletics Championships in Beijing.

Ennis-Hill’s total of 2162 points came after running 12.91 seconds in the 100m hurdles before recording a season's best of 1.86m in the high jump.

Just 30 points back in second place is Johnson-Thompson, who herself started strongly with a personal best of 13.37 in the hurdles before topping the standings in the high jump with a clearance of 1.89m.

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Elsewhere, Nick Miller needed just one throw to secure automatic qualification for the men's hammer final.

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The 22-year-old, who broke the 31-year-old British record last month, threw 77.42m and was understandably delighted to start his campaign in such strong fashion.

Miller said: "Today went well, it was exactly what I needed to do, just the same as I have been doing in training all week.

Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katarina Johnson-Thompson (R) of Britain rest between competing in the high jump event of the women's heptathlon during the 15th IAAF World Championships at the National Stadium in Beijing.

Image credit: Reuters

"I'm very happy, I try not to think about too much, and now everything matters tomorrow. I don’t really look around too much in this kind of thing. I'm like in training and I look at the floor, so it feels the same to me."

In the second qualifying pool, Mark Dry was unable to follow Miller, with the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist bowing out of the competition with a best throw of 73.87m.

Laura Muir and Laura Weightman successively navigated their way through to tomorrow's 1500m semi-final, while in the men’s equivalent Michael Rimmer narrowly missed out on a place in the semi-final finishing a tenth of a second off automatic qualification.

And team-mate Kyle Langford was left disappointed after seeing his campaign come to an end crossing the line in seventh in the second heat.

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