Track and Field World Championships Day 8 Open Thread

Here we are at the penultimate day of the 2015 World Track and Field Championships. Both the morning and afternoon sessions are packed with excitement.

Morning Session

The morning mostly consists of relay heats and decathlon events, but, with Ashton Eaton set to chase a world record, the session is still a must watch.

In a growing catalogue of American blunders at these world championships, the U.S. will get four (4x100 and 4x400, men's and women's) relay chances to either drop a baton, or trip, or false start, or hand off outside an exchange zone, or maybe do something else entirely. They have four chances to mess up, so you better believe they'll convert on at least one of them.

Live coverage on Universal Sports will run from 7:30 PM EST to 12:30 AM EST

Afternoon Session:

The afternoon is more conventionally interesting. The IAAF decided to bury some masters races early in the session. After that, at a time when action normally kicks off, we get into some anticipated finals with the women's 800m, men's 5000m, and the close of the decathlon occurring in rapid succession.

In the women's 800m final, everyone has a personal best between 1:57.52 and 1:58.86 except for Eunice Sum of Kenya who has run under 1:57 this season. She is the prohibitive favorite for gold, but after that, it feels like a toss up for silver and bronze which should set up an exciting finish.

With three Americans in the men's 5000m final, a medal certainly seems possible. Galen Rupp looked strong in the 10k earlier in the championships and saved a lot of energy in the prelims. Ben True showed in the prelims that, if the race comes down to a kick, he has a chance to emerge as a medalist. Will either medal? Probably not, but it's fun that we can at least squint and see a medal in the future.

If you're betting against Mo Farah in this event, you are going to lose your money. He has done nothing at these world championships to cause us to question the null hypothesis that he is unbeatable. The three Ethiopians--Merga, Gebrhiwet, Kejelcha--and three Kenyans--Soi, Ndiku, Koech--will certainly all try. They may even flash the trip maneuver we saw in the last lap of the 10k, but my money has them as unlikely to do much good.

The 1500m of the decathlon may arrive with an opportunity for Ashton Eaton to break his own world record. He's already set a PR in the 400m on Day 7 and one wonders how that might translate up to the 1500m. I'm intrigued.

The day concludes with the women's 4x100m final, which figures to be a battle between the U.S. and Jamaica provided there are no hiccups in the preliminary round. It's still unclear who will populate the squads, but one would figure the U.S. and Jamaica will both put strong teams together.

There will be no live coverage on Universal Sports, so do what you will with regards to finding a stream.

This is your thread. Share your predictions and commentary as the races happen.