Sweden's Carolina Kluft won the women's heptathlon gold medal on the second day of the ninth World Athletics Championships in Paris on Sunday, becoming only the third woman in history to go past 7,000 points after world record holder Jackie Joyner-Kersee of the United States and Larisa Nikitina of Russia.

Kluft finished on 7001 points, well above her personal best of 6692 points achieved just last month at Tallinn in Estonia. 

The 20-year-old athlete put up a superb all-round performance that saw her achieve her personal best in all but one of the seven disciplines in the event.

Her nearest competitor, Eunice Barber of France, took the silver with 6755 points. Natalya Sazanovich of Belarus won the bronze with 6524 points. This was a season's best performance for both of them.

Earlier in the day, Kluft, who had set personal best marks in all four events of the heptathlon on Day 1 to take the lead, suddenly found herself faced with the prospect of elimination when she fouled her first two attempts in the long jump. That was when the young athlete proved that she was a true champion and became the darling of the crowds at the Stade de France.

On her third and final attempt, Kluft made no mistake, leaping from well behind the takeoff board, yet recording the best jump of 6.68metres, 7cm more than the next-best Barber and just 9cm off her own personal best of 6.77m, to collect 1066 points from the event.

"I was quite calm actually," she said later. "There was only one way I could go and that was to get a jump in."

Once she got that jump in, however, she didn't face any real problem. In the next event, the javelin throw, she again achieved a personal best of 49.90m to collect 858 points. Neither of her nearest rivals, Barber and Sazanovich, was able to better it, though Barber came close with a throw of 49.60m. Two other women threw better than Kluft, but they posed no real threat to her overall position.

In the final event, the 800m, Kluft again set a personal best mark of 2:12.12 to finish fourth and collect 934 points. Barber achieved her personal best of 2:13.68 for 911 points while Sazanovich could only do 2:16.53 for 871 points.

Barber, who had struggled to recover from a foot injury in time for the world championship, seemed quite happy with her second place finish. "I have come a long way," she said, but admitted that she would have had to be at her very best to have had any chance of beating Kluft. "She's a great talent," Barber said. "The future belongs to her."