British decathlete Daniel Awde posted a personal best 100m time of 10.71s to win his heat of the sprint race this morning.
The 24-year-old bettered his previous best time of 10.85s by 0.14s to finish ahead of Russia's Sergey Sviridov in the final 100m race of the 10-event competition.
American Ashton Eaton, hotly tipped for gold, set a new Olympic best in the race by posting a time of 10.35s in the previous heat.
Awde lies seventh in the table after the 100m on 926 points, with Eaton the only man on more than a thousand with 1,011.
Two further events - the long jump and shot put - are to be contested in this morning's session at the Olympic Stadium.