Commonwealth Games: Katarina Johnson-Thompson leads heptathlon after day one

England's defending champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson nudged her lead out to 109 points after four events of the Commonwealth Games heptathlon.

The 29-year-old, who won the 2019 world title, began the evening session with an advantage of 17 points.

But a season's best 12.94m shot put and a solid 23.70-second 200m moved her to 3765 points at the first day's end.

Northern Ireland's Kate O'Connor leads the chase on 3656 points, ahead of Australia's Taneille Crase.

Johnson-Thompson's England team-mates Holly Mills and Jade O'Dowda are fourth and fifth on 3602 and 3582 points respectively.

The competition, which is being contested by a field of only eight athletes, concludes with long jump, javelin and 800m on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Johnson-Thompson had topped the high-jump rankings with a clearance of 1.84m after an underwhelming 13.83 seconds in the opening 100m hurdles.

Johnson-Thompson's 200m effort was also someway short of her best, but it was more than enough to put daylight between her and the rest of the competition.

The Liverpudlian has endured a difficult three years since her world title win in Doha, with injury and coaching changes making it difficult to replicate her best.

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During Tuesday morning's opening track and field session, England's Keely Hodgkinson ran within herself but kept clear of the chasing pack to win her 800m heat in 2:00.18.

Scotland's Jemma Reekie bumped into traffic on the final bend, finished third behind Hodgkinson and, after two fast preceding heats, was eliminated from the competition.

"I was feeling good but I got completely thrown off there from behind," she told BBC Sport.

"It's a part of racing so I can't do anything about it."

Reekie's team-mate Laura Muir, who is attempting the 800m and 1500m after her focus on the longer distance was rewarded with Olympic silver last year and world bronze last month, qualified second from her 800m heat behind Jamaica's Natoya Goule. England's Alex Bell also advanced in third.

Jamaica's Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah was joint-fastest in the 100m heats in 10.99. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who won the 100m at the recent World Championships in Eugene, and Shericka Jackson, who took silver behind her, are not competing at the Commonwealths.

England's Dina Asher-Smith was originally picked to run the 100m, but pulled out of the Games with a hamstring issue at the end of July.

Daryll Neita, who finished eighth behind Thompson-Herah at the Tokyo Olympics last summer, was the fastest English qualifier in 11.02, while team-mates Imani Lansiquot and Asha Philip also went through. Wales' Hannah Brier and Scotland's Alisha Rees joined them in Wednesday evening's semi-finals.

England's Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake and Ojie Edoburun, who replaced the injured Reece Prescod in the team last week, made safe progress through to the men's semi-finals alongside Scotland's Adam Thomas.

British champion Jeremiah Azu of Wales advanced, but slowest of all the home nations qualifiers in 10.35.

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