Track and Field World Championships Day 6 Open Thread

As went Day 5, thus will Day 6 with a morning session devoted entirely to heats and qualification rounds and an afternoon session featuring exclusively finals and semifinals.

The morning session is not without intrigue despite the lack of finals. Any race in which Genzebe Dibaba is a participant must now be considered must-see TV. She is in the women's 5000m preliminary round, so you should probably watch that. If you care about the American performance, all three Americans--Marielle Hall, Nicole Tully, and Abbey D'Agostino--find themselves likely to be on the bubble of qualification. That could be a compelling storyline if you are so predisposed to find that sort of storyline compelling, i.e., you are an American.

Later in the morning is the men's 1500m preliminary heats. The 1500m has been ludicrously fast this year, so all three heats are loaded with great 1500m runners. Not all of them will advance. That combination tends to produce excitement.

The afternoon session is where the money is. David Oliver should advance to the final in the 110m hurdles, but Aries Merritt, Omar Mcleod, and Pascal Martinot-Lagarde will all compete for two automatic qualifying spots in the second heat.

In the women's 800m semifinals, Molly Ludlow has been given a favorable patch to advancement while Brenda Martinez has not. The latter will have to deal with Buchel, Meadows, Kehlmann, and Semenya in heat 1.

The women's 400m final should be a battle between Allyson Felix and Shaunae Miller for gold, but the race for bronze is wide open. Look at the start list and find me a woman who you can't conceive of ending up with a medal in the afternoon.

Justin Gatlin, Usain Bolt, and Alonso Edward have all looked strong through the heats of the 200m and smart money has the three of them getting medals in some combination. The emphasis going in will be on Gatlin and Bolt as it should after Gatlin's mysterious choke job in the 100m final. The rest of the field looks strong though, so don't fall off your chair if some third-party candidate appears on one of the top two platforms of the podium.

TV Information and Schedule: All morning session coverage can be found on Universal Sports. Afternoon coverage comes in for the women's 200m semifinals and carries through to the end of the session. That can also be accessed via Universal Sports.