Morgan Lake has tradition on her side but she is fast establishing a reputation of her own as one of the sport’s best multi-eventers as she proved on the opening day of the IAAF World Junior Championships in Eugene.
It is quite a time for European heptathletes, with Jessica Ennis as the Olympic champion and Ukraine’s Hanna Melnychenko as the world champion and now Lake is on the brink of securing a major title.
With Ennis as an inspiration, fellow Briton Lake, 17, leads the competition after day one by 169 points following a record breaking opening in the high jump.
She started with a 100m hurdles of 14.29 which put her 12th overall as Nadine Visser, of the Netherlands, led with the quickest time of 13.24, but then as the competition moved to its next discipline, Lake produced a stunning performance.
Entering the high jump at 1.76m, which she cleared first time, she then needed three attempts to go over at 1.79m before having no fouls at 1.82m, 1.85m, 1.88m and 1.91m.
There was no stopping her as she moved to 1.94m which she cleared at the second go to break her British junior record of 1.93m, which she had set in May, and it was the best a junior heptathlete has ever jumped.
And then the British senior outdoor record of 1.95m came into focus. The bar moved was up to 1.97m but she missed out, for now, on that, but it was a brilliant series.
It moved her into the overall lead with 2096 points from Visser, who cleared 1.73m, with 1980.
'It was amazing to break the British junior record again,' said Lake, speaking to British Athletics. 'The first time I did it I jumped 1.93m and today I just wanted that one centimetre more, which doesn’t seem like much difference in height, but it’s a great feeling and I am really proud to have broken it.'
From Olympic multi-event champions Dame Mary Peters in 1972 and Denise Lewis in 2000, through to Kelly Sotherton, the Olympic bronze medallist in 2004, and then Ennis in 2012, there is such a legacy in Britain and now new stars are on their way.
Katrina Johnson-Thompson tops the world rankings this summer after her victory in Gotzis and Lake ended the day at Hayward Field with 3821 points from Visser with 3652 and Cuba’s Yorgelis Rodriguez with 3561.
Lake won the shot put with 14.17m, the only athlete to break the 14m barrier, and was the third fastest in the 200m in 24.64 as Germany’s Celina Leffler had the best time of 23.90 followed by Visser in 24.15.
As expected in the men’s 110m hurdles, the top two from qualifying are Britain’s David Omoregie, the fastest with 13.24, and France’s European junior record-holder Wilhem Belocian with 13.40.