Athletics: Ennis and Sotherton display their mettle to stay in hunt for medals

World Championships, day one: Great Britons battle with Blonska but peerless Kluft stays on track for her third global title. By Simon Turnbull in Osaka

It was a glorious sight to behold. Race number one on the track at the World Championships and a competitor in a Great Britain vest crossed the line first, ahead of the greatest of the runners, jumpers and throwers gathered here in Japan's Second City. Regrettably, perhaps, there was no possibility of stopping the action there, taking a gold medal, thank you, and of jetting back home with a 100% record.

Still, by close of play on day one of the heptathlon, hope remained very much alive that Jessica Ennis might finish the job she started in fine style by making it on to the podium – or that Kelly Sotherton might get there instead of, or indeed as well as, the young Sheffield woman. A battle for bronze and possibly silver too between the Britons, and Lyudmila Blonska of the Ukraine, is on the agenda for the denouement today following a gripping opening day's drama in the stifling heat and humidity of Nagai Stadium.

It began with Ennis smashing through the 13sec barrier in the 100m hurdles, clocking a lifetime best of 12.97sec ahead of the great Carolina Kluft and the equally inspired Sotherton, both of whom also registered personal bests in the opening event (13.15sec and 13.21sec respectively).

It finished with Ennis showing the kind of mettle that might be expected of a native of South Yorkshire's Steel City, the 21-year-old following a disappointing 1.89m in the high jump and a potentially disastrous 11.93m in the shot with a whopping PB of 23.56sec to win the 200m and catapult her slender 5ft 5in frame back into contention for a medal.

Ennis stands in fourth with 3,989 points – 47 points behind Sotherton, who brushed off the cobwebs of a stale season to show the pedigree of an athlete who has been on the rostrum at global level before. Prior to her departure for the Far East, the 30-year-old Birchfield Harrier got out the Olympic bronze medal she won in Athens three years ago, "just to remind myself that I'm as good as that".

In the four events yesterday – as Kluft moved on course for a third world title and a European record, with Blonska, a reinstated drug offender, behind her in second place – Sotherton was better than she had been in the Greek capital in 2004, and on the first day of any other heptathlon she has contested. The lifetime best in the hurdles was followed by season's bests in the high jump (1.86m) and the shot (14.14m) and then a personal best in the 200m (23.40sec). That left the one-time debt collector with a haul of 3,989 points, her highest ever first-day tally.

The question now is whether she can repay the debt she owes to herself for having allowed her javelin to slide back from a respectable 40m to the darts-throwing side of the 30m mark. "If I get mid-30s, that's what I need," she pondered. "My javelin's going a lot better now, everyone's commenting on that."

It is to be hoped that Mike McNeill, the javelin guru who nurtured Goldie Sayers, has reversed an alarming slide. Still, Sotherton has two strong suits to play on the final day, in the long jump and the 800m – and she will not be short of confidence when she steps on to the javelin runway. "Everything has been consistent today and I know I can carry it on to tomorrow," she said. "If I get a PB [it presently stands at 6,547 points] I think I'll get a medal, but it's not just about me. There's a lot of people chasing me – Jess is in fourth."

The good thing for both Britons is that the path to the podium is laid out in front of them, the one-time world champion Eunice Barber having failed to make it to the start line and Russian prodigy Tatyana Chernova having wilted somewhat, as Sotherton suspected she might, in the pressure of her first senior championship experience.

The peerless Kluft has never lost a heptathlon as a senior and, fully fit for the first time since the Athens Olympics, the 24-year-old Swede is on schedule to break both her personal best tally (7,001 points) and Larisa Nikitina's European record (7,007 points). The 4,162 points that Kluft piled up yesterday – with that PB in the hurdles, another one in the high jump (1.95m) and season's bests in the shot (14.81m) and 200m (23.38sec) – were 19 more than her previous best on an opening day.

Blonska lies 148 points behind, on 4,014 points, 25 ahead of Sotherton. If one of the Britons misses out on a medal because of her it will be a pity for not just themselves and the Great Britain team but for the good of the sport. She tested positive in 2003 for stanozolol, the steroid that fuelled Ben Johnson's world record 100m run at the Seoul Olympics back in 1988.