Where Usain Bolt strolled through the first day of the Olympic athletics programme with the air of a man in search of a hammock, Kelly Sotherton rushed through the media area and succumbed to tears and a restless night. Although she ended the first day of the heptathlon in third place and registered two personal best from four events, she knew that her hopes of a gold medal had all but evaporated. “I've had a crap day,” she said.

That was a harsh assessment but, as Sotherton said in the build-up to Beijing, she is no “bulls***ter”. With Hyleas Fountain, of the United States, filling the void left by Carolina Klüft's abdication after 19 straight wins in the heptathlon, Sotherton was furious with herself. “I've not dug myself out,” she said after a good 200metres. Daft question, but was she happy? “No, because I should be in first, easy.” That was disingenuous, too, because had she matched her personal bests in the shot and the high jump she would still have trailed Fountain.

There is no doubt that Sotherton believed that she was going for gold. She even took a lie-detector test recently at Bristol University, where she was asked if she thought that she would become the Olympic champion. She said yes and passed. The belief was waning by last night, but Sotherton ended the day with a good chance of bronze and a distant one of silver. She will need to throw the javelin more than 40metres and run faster than ever in the 800metres, but her disappointment was deep. “I am in much better shape than that. I'm really unhappy.”

Her first-day tally was better than she managed when winning bronze at the World Championships last year, but there was no consoling her. She completed four events with 3,938 points, 58 adrift of Nataliya Dobrynska in second and a huge 122 behind Fountain. With Lyudmila Blonska, Anna Bogdanova and Tatyana Chernova striving to force their way into the medal placings, Sotherton needs to banish her disappointment and set about rectifying the perceived wrongs.

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She started well, posting 13.18sec in the 100metres hurdles. The high jump was a low point, her best of 1.83metres being beaten by all the big guns, but the shot suggested that her challenge was creaking. She had managed 14.66 metres in the US in April, but struggled to only 13.87metres yesterday. The damage was done, the mood swung and even an impressive run in the 200metres came in the wake of Fountain disappearing to victory in the same heat.

Sotherton has been through the mill before and emerged intact. She won the Commonwealth Games title in Melbourne in 2006 and only later found that she had a broken bone in her back. This year she has suffered injury and temporary kidney failure, and yet seemed in good form going into the Olympics. She has not competed in a heptathlon since last year's World Championships, however, and as emotions bubbled to the surface, she conceded that she was behind schedule. “I'm where I should have been in May,” she said.

It was a chastening day for others, too. Helen Clitheroe broke the British record for the 3,000metres steeplechase but did not qualify, and Jemma Simpson bowed out of the 800metres and admitted that she had got it all wrong tactically.

However, there were some impressive performances from the middle-distance duo who have earned dark-horse status on the back of impressive seasons. First up was Marilyn Okoro, who said “bring it on” after getting through her 800metres heat. Jenny Meadows also made it, but appetites were really whetted in the evening session when Andy Baddeley hung off the back and then cruised through to a comfortable third place in his heat and a place in tomorrow's 1,500metres semi-finals.

By then Britain will hope to have their first medal. Sotherton, who is 31 and may turn her back on the heptathlon in favour of the long jump after Beijing, knows that her chance of being Olympic champion has probably gone for ever, but a second bronze medal would be a significant achievement.