NEW DELHI - Jamie Adjetey-Nelson of Windsor, Ont., took the early lead Thursday in the decathlon at the Commonwealth Games, winning two events and finishing second in another to amass 2,583 points.
Adjetey-Nelson won the second of two 100-meter heats in 10.87 seconds. He was the only one of the 14 starters to get under 11 seconds in the first discipline of the 10-event competition.
In the long jump, the Canadian leapt 7.37 metres to finish second. He then won the shot put with a throw of 15 metres.
There are seven finals scheduled for Thursday on the second day of the athletics competition at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium -- three of them in parasport events. The highlight on the program will be the men's and women's 100.
Most of the biggest names in track and field have withdrawn from the competition in New Delhi for various reasons, including Usain Bolt, Caster Semenya and Jessica Ennis. Workers were still putting the finishing touches to the competition track hours before the first event started Wednesday.
Adjetey-Nelson led Brent Newdick of New Zealand by 96 points in the decathlon. Newdick, who competed at last year's world championships in Berlin, had the best long jump at 7.42 metres and has 2,487 points.
Bharat Inder Singh of India was in third place with 2,484 points ahead of the evening session's two events, the high jump and the 400 metres. The other five events will take place Friday.
Conrad Williams of England had the best time in the 400 heats, running 45.78, and Mark Kiprotich Muttai of Kenya was the only other competitor to get under 46 seconds by running 45.90.
In the women's 1,500, all three Kenyans reached the final. Viola Jelagat Kibiwott had the fastest time of the day, finishing in 4:08.76. Nancy Jebet Langat won the other heat in 4:13.62, and Irene Jelagat was second by one-hundredth of a second.
The only gold medal of the morning session went to Kyle Pettey in the men's parasport shot put. The Canadian threw 11.44 metres to win and break his own world record.
