Super cool Kluft stretches lead

Heptathlon’s new golden girl Carolina Kluft produced the most important long jump of her life to stretch her lead after five events at the World Championships on Sunday.

Kluft 20, showed what a cool character she is when, dicing with elimination after two no-jumps, she bravely threw caution to the wind on the second day of the Championships.

Knowing a final failure would mean all her hard work from Saturday – when she finished the day 194 points ahead of favourite Eunice Barber – could count for nothing.

But she came up trumps with a magnificent final effort, jumping an impressive 6.68m to beat 1999 World champion Barber’s best performance of the day by seven centimetres.

Kluft, who came to prominence as a new heptathlon star after Barber’s injury in 2000, now leads the Frenchwoman by 217 points with just the javelin and 800 metres remaining.

In the 400m, defending world champion Amy Backe Thiam easily progressed to the next round of heats by winning her opening race in 50.86 seconds.

The Senegal star, who shocked everyone in Edmonton two years ago by claiming gold, is clearly in good shape to retain her title.

Mexican rival Ana Guevara, meanwhile, is also looking good in her challenge for gold in Wednesday night’s final after running 51.14secs in her opening race.

Jamaica’s Lorraine Fenton, 29, the silver-medallist in Edmonton two years ago, won her heat in 50.90secs.

The first of three gold medals to be decided on Sunday went to 37-year-old Russian Yelena Nikolayeva, who won the 20 kilometre walk in a time of 1 hour 26 minutes 52 seconds to claim her first ever World title at this distance.

“My dream has come true,” said the 1996 Olympic 10km champion. “Winning was not easy but I really wanted it.

“My plan was to try and escape from the rest just like I did in Atlanta.

“My only regret is that nobody handed me a Russian flag when I finished the race.”

In the women’s 400m hurdles, world record holder Yuliya Pechonkina cruised into the semis with yet another assured display.

The 25-year-old Russian, who set a world record of 52.34 seconds less than three weeks ago at the Russian championships in Tula, won her opening heat in a time of 54.01 secs another from fellow qualifiers Tetiana Tereschuk-Antipova of the Ukraine and American Joanna Hayes.

It was Pechonkina’s first appearance outside of her native country since breaking the world record.

Jana Pittman of Australia, widely tipped to be Pechonkina’s main rival following two Golden League victories this season, also won her heat in 54.80.

Romanian Ionela Tirlea, the European champion and third fastest runner in 2003, came second behind another medal candidate, Sandra Glover of the United States, in her heat.