Beijing - Finally, the real Olympics are beginning!

Promptly at 9:00 a.m. local time on Friday (15), the first heat of the women’s 100m Hurdles will get us off and running for nine days of running, jumping and throwing, plus the men’s marathon on the 10th day, 24 August.

Friday’s action includes finals in only two events – the men’s Shot Put and the women’s 10,000 metres.  But it also includes not only the Heptathlon’s first day  (100m Hurdles, Long Jump, Shot Put and 200 metres) – plus qualifying rounds in the men’s 100 metres, 1500 metres, 400m Hurdles and Hammer Throw, and the women’s 800 metres, Discus Throw and Triple Jump.

Finals in the men's Shot Put, women's 10,000m the Highlights...

Let’s look at the finals first. The shot putters, traditionally the ones to get the first athletics medals, have to do a full days’ work to earn them. First, they go through a nerve-wracking qualifying round, starting at 9:05 a.m.! Experience has shown that shot putters are NOT at their best early in the morning, and there’s always the chance that one of the favourites will get up on the wrong side of the bed and fail to produce a qualifying throw of 20.40m or better.

Then, 12 hours later, the qualifiers have to face the final. The three American putters - Adam Nelson (22.40m this year), Christian Cantwell (22.18) and Reese Hoffa (22.10) - are favored to go 1-2-3, but they face strong contenders in Belarus’ Andrei Mikhnevitch (22.00) and Dutchman Rutger Smith, whose best this year is only 20.80, but who has a way of coming through in the big meets. A last-minute flash tells us that Adam Nelson injured an oblique muscle on the left side earlier this week, so we’ll have to watch his morning performance closely.

Winding up the day’s action will be the women’s 10,000m. Based on personal bests,  Lorna Kiplagat (NED – 30:12.53) and Ethiopia’s DiBaba sisters, 2005 and 2007 World champion Tirunesh (30:15.37) and Ejegayehu (30:18.39) are clearly the class of the field. Others with a shot at the medals include Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey (30:21.67), second in the 2007 Worlds; Shalane Flanagan (USA – 30:34.49); New Zealand’s Kim Smith (30:35.54), Ethiopia’s third-string Mestawet Tufa (30:38.33) and 2007 Worlds bronze medalist Kara Goucher, whose best time of 31:17.12 doesn’t compare with the others, but who is a strong finisher.

... along with two rounds of the men's 100m

The two rounds of the men’s 100m will give us a first look at the predicted three-way shootout among Jamaica’s new World record holder Usain Bolt (at 9.72), Jamaica’s former World record holder Asafa Powell (9.74), and World champion Tyson Gay, who ran 9.77 at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Gay, who suffered a muscle strain in the Trials 200 metres after winning the 100, ran a hard 100m workout recently, and says he is ready to win the gold medal here. These first two rounds should help us sort out who’s really who.

Although not as much drama is expected from the qualifying rounds in the other events on today’s program, there is perhaps special interest in the men’s 1500m and the women’s 800m.

In the 1500, Kenyan-born Bernard Lagat of the United States, 2007 World champion and two-time Olympic medalist will face a field with 14 other entrants who have run 3:32.00 or better. And in the women's 800, most of us will get our first look at the 18-year-old Kenyan phenomenon, Pamela Jelimo, who has run 1:54.97 this year to put her in seventh place on the all-time women's 800 list!

James Dunaway for the IAAF