Athletics-Britain's Johnson-Thompson leads heptathlon after four events

Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson holds a 96-point lead over defending champion Nafissatou Thiam after four events of the heptathlon at the world athletics championships on Wednesday. The 26-year-old Johnson-Thompson took an early lead after a personal best of 13.09 seconds in the 100m hurdles, before matching Thiam with a clearance of 1.95m in the high jump.

The Belgian briefly reclaimed top spot with a 15.22-metre throw in the shot put, while Johnson-Thompson managed a personal best of 13.86 metres. Johnson-Thompson retook the lead with a season's best of 23.08 seconds in the 200 metres to move onto 4,138 points. Thiam trails Johnson-Thompson with 4042 points going into the three remaining events on Thursday: the long jump, the javelin and the 800m.

"I'm happy with what I did today and I hope I can be good like that tomorrow and see what happens," Thiam said. Kendell Williams of the United States sits in third with 3,855 points.