British Indoor Athletics Championships: Katarina Johnson-Thompson breaks British high jump record
Katarina Johnson-Thompson was the star on day one of the British Indoor Athletics Championships in Sheffield.
By Sam Drury - Follow on Twitter
Last Updated: 11/02/14 11:10am
Known primarily as a heptathlete, Johnson-Thompson showed her class in the high jump as she firstly beat the stadium record of 1.92m held by Jessica Ennis-Hill to win the competition, before going on to smash her own personal best and claim a new British record with a jump of 1.96m.
"I knew I was in good form because I had a good session in Loughborough last week and had a really good high jump session," said the Liverpool Harriers heptathlete.
"I've been working on things mentally because last year and the year before I knew I had a good jump in me but it's just me against the bar.
"With the high jump and pole vault it's a height that you can see and you've got to clear it and that's a lot harder than the long jump where you can just run down the runway.
"So me and my coach Mike Holmes have been working on it mentally to try and get myself to overcome it. I have today and hopefully I can keep hold of what I've worked on mentally and have a good season.
"With Liverpool winning 5-1 it was a good day for Liverpool all round."
Elsewhere, the fastest man in the world this year, James Dasaolu, beat Dwain Chambers to win the 60m crown by equalling his season's best of 6.50 seconds. Chambers came home in 6.53, the same time given to third placed Richard Kilty, a personal best for the Gateshead sprinter.
"I'm happy to defend my title," said Dasaolu. "I didn't get the best of starts but still managed to run 6.50.
"It's the same as what I ran in my first race so I know there's more to come. I got a really poor reaction but I'm just happy to be competing and feeling healthy.
"Today was all about doing three rounds in one day and coming through unscathed with no injuries and booking myself on that plane."
Asha Philip claimed the women's title and set another stadium record as well as a personal best of 7.09 seconds, beating 18-year-old Dina Asher-Smith into second place.
World lead
Sky Academy Sports Scholar Holly Bleasdale needed just one attempt to claim the pole vault title. She cleared 4.46m at the first time of asking and then consolidated her win and set a world lead with a vault of 4.73m.
"It feels amazing - my main aim was to come here and defend my title and I did that, so I'm really happy with today," she said.
History was made in the 60m hurdles final as the judges were unable to separate Andrew Pozzi and William Sharman meaning the pair were named joint champions in a time of 7.64 seconds - the first dead heat ever in the championships.
The men's triple jump saw Julian Reid regain his title with a jump of 16.87m in the fifth round, ahead of Nathan Fox and Daniel Lewis in second and third, respectively.
That was also victory for JJ Jegede in the jump long, 7.85m saw him beat Shaftesbury's Dan Bramble by 5cm, Andy Vernon took the 3000m title and Rachel Wallader claimed the women's shot put gold.
Defending 400m champion Eilidh Child is safely through to Sunday's final after running a season's best of 53.06, but in the men's 400m Michael Bingham was disqualified after his heat for drifting out of his lane.
The 800m saw Jenny Meadows make her return in the women's event and the former World bronze medallist set the day's fastest time and a season's best of 2:05.68.
In the men's event Guy Learmonth, who set the world leading time for 2014 earlier in the month, eased to victory in his heat and will go in tomorrow's final.
The day final track event saw Jemma Simpson take the 1500m gold, narrowly missing out on the qualifying time for the World Indoor Championships.