Track and Field World Championships Day Two Thread

The morning session--which happens tonight if you are in the U.S.--lacks a final or even a semi-final. I'm intentionally being unfair to the men's 20km race walk final that opens the day of competition, but this is a running website, so race-walking does not fall under our purview. Heats of the women's 400m hurdles, men's 400m, and women's 100m of course have the potential to provide excitement with a poorly-timed trip or false-start from a contender, but that seems unlikely.

Where the morning generally lacks intrigue, the afternoon session should make up for it in spades. With an American in each of the three heats of the 400m hurdles, there is a very real chance that three Americans advance to the final to open the possibility of a U.S. sweep.

In the semifinals of the men's 800m, Nijel Amos and David Rudisha face each other in heat two. Americans Erik Sowinski and Clayton Murphy hope their good fortune continues and they make it through to the finals.

Jenny Simpson and Shannon Rowbury are in separate heats of the women's 1500m semi-finals. After sharing some thoughts on Russian Tatyana Tomashova following yesterday's heats, Jenny Simpson will see her again in Heat Two this afternoon. Something tells me both of them will be more concerned with the impact Genzebe Dibaba will have on their heat.

But the focus of today's action will be the Men's 100m. Early in the afternoon are the semi-finals where Tyson Gay probably faces the toughest challenge to advance among the main contenders as he drew Heat 3 with Asafa Powell and Jimmy Vicaut. Usain Bolt will be challenged in Heat One by Trayvon Bromell and perhaps we will gain some insight into how he might stack up against Justin Gatlin later in the afternoon. That final fittingly caps off day 2 of action in Beijing and will likely feature the most anticipated head-to-head matchup of the entire meet: Gatlin v. Bolt.

We'll be here through it all. This is your thread for Day 2 of the World Championships.