As expected, the women's Heptathlon is turning out to be a duel between two athletes.They have performed far above the other participants earlier this season, but their strat in the World Championships has been even better.

After two events, Carolina Kluft (SWE) is leading with 2255 points, while the French favourite, Eunice Barber, is only 19 points behind.

Barber, who always starts strongly in the 100m Hurdles, won the first event in 13.05 seconds. This was, however, well below her season's best of 12.88, recorded last weekend and further away still from the superb 12.78 she recorded in the opening event in Edmonton in 2001. Kluft's hurdle race went better as she bettered her personal best with 13.18 and only lost to Barber by 0.13 seconds.

Debnise Lewis (GBR) who is  not in the shape she was when she won the Olympic Games in Sydney, recorded a season's best in the first event with 13.37.

For Lewis, it was the High Jump that turned out to be the disappointing event. She could only manage 1.64 metres and fell way behind in the total points.

The High Jump moved the two leaders over 200 points clear of the others. Both Kluft and Barber were very convincing and cleared several heights at their first attempts. With Barber having one misss at 1.82 metres, they went easily over 1.91. The personal best height for both competitors, 1.94, proved to be decisive. The Swede cleared again aty her first attempt, leaving Barber jumping alone. The French hope was not able to better her personal best and Kluft even had one very close attempt at 1.97m.

Kluft currently leads the competition with 2255 points, ahead of Barber's 2236. Julie Hollman (GBR) currently lies in third place, but will most likely not be able to keep that position during the competition. The most likely contender for the bronze is Yelena Prokhorova, the reigning World champion from 2001. The silver medallist from Edmonton, Natalya Sazanovich (BLR) and Lewis will likely be in the contest for the third place.

Kluft has again recorded personal bests in both of the first two events and is now the slight favourite to win the gold medal. The Shot Put will be the discipline to watch, as this is the event where Barber failed to produce a mark in Edmonton.

Carolina KLÜFT (SWE) has almost ended the fight for the gold medal after day one of the women’s Heptathlon.

The Swede recorded four personal bests in as many events and established a huge first day total of 4143. Before coming to Paris she had a personal best of 6692 from Tallinn in July.

Her score here after four events means that if she goes on breaking her personal bests tomorrow, she will be very close to being the third woman to break the 7000 point mark. Larisa Nikitina’s (URS) European record from 1989 stands at 7007 and that could well be in jeopardy in tomorrow’s competition.

Klüft’s shot put did not start well, she only had 12.13m with her first attempt. The Swede was not at all troubled by this, though, as she bettered her result on the second attempt before making a big personal best of 14.19m with her last throw.

Eunice BARBER (FRA) also improved her best mark to 12.97m, but despite of this fell some 100 points behind Klüft after three events. As expected, Natalya SAZANOVICH (BLR) was the best of the heptathletes in the shot put. The distance of her second throw, however, was surprisingly long. The shot landed at 16.81m, a very rare result in heptathlon.

If anyone was expecting the favourite to win the event tomorrow, there was no one who will do that after the 200m. The last event of the day proved that Klüft is just in unbeatable form. Barber tried to challenge the Swede, running in the lane next to her, but after the 100m mark Klüft pulled away quickly. In the end the Swede won by almost a second and this meant another 100 points between the two athletes at the end of the first day.

Klüft is now leading the competition with 4143 points with Barber in second place having scored 3949, 194 less than the leader. The athletes have quite even PBs day two events, so much must happen if Barber still wants to challenge Klüft for the win.

Edmonton silver medallist Sazanovich is lying on third place after her great result in the shot put; her score is 3894. In fourth place is the reigning world champion Yelena PROKHOROVA (RUS), who is not quite in the same shape as in Edmonton. The Russian is already over 150 points behind bronze medal place.

The first event of the second day in women’s Heptathlon, the Long Jump, offered some breathtaking moments.

Carolina Klüft (SWE), leading the competition by almost 200 points after day one, fouled her first two attempts and had to get a result with her last to avoid a total disaster. Her first attempt was really good and looked to be around 6.75m, but was a clear foul. The second attempt was not as long, but still of decent quality and this time just a narrow foul.

Eunice Barber (FRA), already with second place secured before the second day, started the long jump well, jumping to 6.61m on her first attempt.

Barber did not improve on that during the competition, but it meant that Klüft had to do quite well to make sure her lead would not be cut significantly. The Swede decided, as of course she should, to take it safely and jumped from well behind the board to 6.68m, to move a further 23 points ahead of the French favourite.

Klüft is now leading with a total of 5209 points, 217 more than Barber, who has 4992 in second place. Barber has already secured her silver medal as Natalya Sazanovich (BLR), in third with 4891, and reigning world champion Yelena Prokhorova (RUS), in fourth with 4727, will not be able to challenge her in the last two events.

Sazanovich and Prokhorova produced almost the same result in the long jump, 6.47m and 6.46m respectively, so their fight for the bronze medal will continue, with the Belarussian leading by 164 points before the Javelin Throw.

Carolina Klüft (SWE) continued her marvellous series in the sixth event of the Heptathlon, the Javelin Throw.

Unlike in the long jump, Klüft already secured her win in the heptathlon with her first throw of 48.24m, her best in a Heptathlon competition. This meant that Eunice Barber (FRA) was left with no possibility of catching the Swede, who has a lead of over 200 points before the last event.
 
Klüft produced her best mark of 49.90m only missing her personal best by 34 centimetres. Barber also performed well, her best was 49.60m securing her silver medal in the competition. Reigning world champion Yelena Prokhorova (RUS) was not able to catch Natalya Sazanovich (BLR), who is in bronze medal position.
 
Klüft now leads the competition with 6067 points. She needs to run a 2:11.65 800m to break Larisa Nikitina's (URS) European record of 7007 points from 1989. Barber is in second place with 5844 and Sazanovich seems to have taken the bronze medal with 5653 points after six events.
 
However, the Belarussian is not the fastest 800m runner on the track and Prokhorova is fast, so it is still possible for the Russian to catch Sazanovich in the last event. 190 points stand between the two athletes with Prokhorova's total now at 5463.
 
The 2000 Olympic champion, Denise Lewis (GBR), is now in fifth place, only 38 points behind Prokhorova.

Although already a well known athlete, following her European title last year in Munich, Carolina KLÜFT (SWE) has moved onto a new level at the 2003 World Championships.

Following her perfect day one, she was able to overcome early problems in the Long Jump, where she had two fouls, and manage a reasonable 6.68m with her last jump.
 
In the Javelin, she threw her best result during a Heptathlon competition, 49.90m, only 0.34 centimetres off her personal best of 50.24m, set earlier this season.
 
At this stage it was already clear that the Swede could become the third woman to break the magic 7000 point barrier, plus the standing European record of 7007 points held by Larisa NIKITINA (URS) from 1989.

Klüft knew that she needed to run fast to get there and after a brave 62 seconds first lap in the 800m she finished second, behind Yelena PROKHOROVA (RUS), in 2:12.12, another personal best to give her five pbs from the seven events.
 
With a final score of 7001 points, which moves her to third place in the world all-time list, behind world record holder Jackie Joyner-Kersee (7291), and European record holder Nikitina (7007).
 
The 800m did not offer any other surprises, as Eunice BARBER (FRA) finished second with a total of 6755 points.

Although Prokohorova tried her best in the 800m, she was only able to gain about half the points she needed to overhaul Natalya SAZANOVICH (BLR) for the bronze medal. Prokhorova, the Edmonton world champion, finished the 800m in 2:08.31 for a total of 6452, enough for fourth place. Sazanovich, not usually a very fast 800m runner, ran better than she has in recent heptathlons, recording 2:16.53, which easily gave her third place and a total of 6524 points.
 
2000 Sydney Olympic champion Denise LEWIS (GBR) was far off her best form, but still managed to finish in fifth place with a total of 6254 points.