Olympics-Athletics-Britain's Johnson-Thompson leads heptathlon

By Amy Tennery

PARIS (Reuters) -Britain's world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson led the Olympic women's heptathlon after the first day on Thursday, with Belgium's twice Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam and American Anna Hall second and third in the standings.

Johnson-Thompson is aiming to banish bitter memories of Tokyo, where her Olympic campaign ended with a torn calf muscle, and was second in her 100 metres hurdles heat in 13.40 seconds before clearing 1.92 metres in the high jump.

After two poor attempts, Johnson-Thompson threw the shot a personal best 14.44 metres to stay in contention.

She had the lead coming off the turn as she closed out the day with a superb 23.44 seconds victory in the 200m.

Thiam (13.56) finished fifth in her 100 metres hurdles heat but took full advantage of her best event as she did have a failure on the way to a 1.92 metres clearance in the high jump.

She equalled her personal best 15.54 to top her group in the shot and followed up with 24.46 seconds in the 200.

World silver medallist Hall has her own Olympic demons to banish, after she fractured a bone in her foot at the U.S. trials three years ago.

Hall put on a confident display to post a season's best 1.89 in the high jump after clocking 13.36 in the hurdles. A best throw of 14.11 in the shot put kept her on track and she closed out the evening with 23.89 in the 200m.

Johnson-Thompson had 4,055 points, 48 points ahead of Thiam, with Hall on 3,956 ahead of the long jump, javelin and 800 on Friday.

The podium was still within reach for Belgian Noor Vidts, who finished fourth in Tokyo and was fourth in the standings on Thursday with 3,951.

(Reporting by Amy Tennery in Paris; Editing by Ken Ferris and Ed Osmond)