Ennis spoke before her competition about her hopes for a hurdles personal best to settle her nerves, though she could not have dreamed that she would shatter her previous best mark of 12.79sec to such devastating effect.

Her time of 12.54sec was 0.02sec inside the UK record of hurdles specialist Tiffany Porter and also the quickest hurdles performance ever recorded in a heptathlon.

I am still so shocked at the hurdles time, she said. I knew I was in good shape. My hurdles have been going well and if I had run 12.80 or 12.70-something, I would have been over the moon. But 12.54 I literally cant believe it. Its so crazy.

So crazy, in fact, that it was the same time that American Dawn Harper clocked to win the 100m hurdles gold medal at Beijing. Ennis may now be tempted to try her hand at the individual event, which opens with the first-round heats on Monday morning.

Her name is already on the entry list, but only as a precaution against her failing to complete the heptathlon. With just 36 hours of rest available to her after the final event, taking part would mean avoiding the media onslaught that will inevitably be heading her way if she wins gold.

After such an explosive start, it was a pity that Ennis was unable to get closer to her high jump personal best of 1.95m in the second event of the day, though her clearance of 1.86m was by no means disastrous and was actually 1cm higher than she cleared on her way to breaking Denise Lewiss UK heptathlon record in Gotzis, Austria, in May.

It also caused no damage to her place in the overall standings, with Dobrynska clearing 1.83m and Chernova managing just 1.80m.

The revelation of the high jump was Liverpudlian Katarina Johnson-Thompson, the former world youth heptathlon champion, who soared to a personal best of 1.89m which, following her personal best-equalling 13.48sec in the hurdles, elevated her to the dizzy heights of the bronze medal position after two events.

It was evidence of why, at the age of 19, she is already being touted as the next Jess if she can improve her throws. Even Ennis has conceded that she has the potential to surpass her achievements in years to come.

However, now is Enniss time and she appears to be marching inexorably towards Britains first track and field gold medal of the Olympics if she can sustain her current form.

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Jessica Ennis storms into first-day lead in Olympic heptathlon after smashing personal bests in two events