Track and Field World Championships Day 4 Open Thread

Day 4 of the World Championships lacks a morning session, which, if you live on the east coast of the United States, means that you got to go to sleep a little earlier last night.

Welcome back! Even though they're getting a later start in Beijing, there is still plenty of intrigue in today's action on the track. The schedule (Beijing time) is as follows, the entire session can be viewed on Universal sports:

The start of the men's 200m means the Bolt v. Gatlin hype train gets to leave the station once more. You'll hear the familiar narratives about Bolt as the potential savior as Gatlin and his years-ago doping ban threatens the very fabric of not only track and field, but society at large. Ignore that as best you can and enjoy the exciting racing that is sure to occur.

Without Bershawn Jackson and Johnny Dutch, the 400m hurdles final is weaker than we perhaps expected. Still, American's can get two medals in the event and the unusual opportunity for a Kenyan medal in this event looms with both Nicholas Bett and Boniface Tumuti in the final.

The women's 1500m final figures to be the Genzebe Dibaba show up front, but after that there is a lot else to get excited about. Shannon Rowbury and Jenny Simpson will look to continue the trend of one woman stealing a medal from another while Sifan Hassan may hope she can last with Dibaba 300m longer than she was able to in Monaco to steal gold.

The men's 800m final features the same number of Nick Symmonds Americans as non-Nick Symmonds Americans: 0. One wonders if this harsh reality will bother USATF at all as they watch east Africans line the podium at the end of the day 4 afternoon. Probably not, but it should.

I hope you enjoyed your lack of a morning session and that the absence made your heart grow fonder for track. Even if it didn't, this afternoon session should still be quite pleasing.