Ethiopian runner Tirunesh Dibaba(Beijing August 22) -- We're heading for the home straight now, folks – with 21 gold medals in nine different sports at stake on day 14 – not least of in Canoe/Kayak and Athletics, which, combined, account for 13 of the medals being doled out, not to mention finals and semifinals galore.
Let's start, as ever, at the National Stadium. The "Birds Nest" will see seven finals – but who will be crowing by the end of the evening?
The highlight of the night could be the clash between Ethiopian distance greats Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba in the Women's 5000m final. Olympic and world champion Defar was the fastest qualifier, but Dibaba won her heat to set up a much-anticipated battle.
Reigning world champion Nathan Deakes of Australia will miss the Men's 50km Walk final through injury, so France's 2007 World Championship silver medalist Yohan DIniz is a slight favorite.
The field is open in the Men's Pole Vault final after world champion Brad Walker of the United States was surprisingly knocked out of the competition after failing to clear his opening height in the qualifying round. Steve Hooker of Australia and Russian duo Evgeny Lukyanenko and Igor Pavlov could fight it out for the gold.
Another Russian will have high hopes in the Women's Long Jump final. World and Olympic champion Tatyana Lebedeva will look to add to her silver medal from the Women's Triple Jump this week.
Reigning Olympic and three-time world Heptathlon champion, Carolina Kluft of Sweden, will also be in the hunt for her first major Long Jump title since deciding to concentrate on the event.
There are few certainties in Olympic finals, but unless something remarkable happens Jamaica should cruise to victory in both the Men's and Women's 4 x 100m Relay finals, with anticipated showdowns in finals between the Caribbean country and the United States extinguished by the disqualification of both US teams in the qualification rounds. Even Athens 2004 Men's Relay champions Great Britain will not have an opportunity to defend their title, after they were also disqualified in heat one.
Jamaica has never won an Olympic gold medal in the Men's event, but with the likes of Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell in their team, they have a big opportunity to make history in Beijing.
Jamaica's women posted the fastest qualifying time – although Athens 2004 silver medalists Russia, and 2007 world bronze medalists Belgium might provide nominal opposition.
Bryan Clay of the United States leads the Decathlon after day one, though the ominous figure of defending champion Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic has steadily climbed from 27th position to fifth after five events and could retain his title if he carries the upward curve.
Away from the medals, the United States will expect to cruise through round one of the Men's 4 x 400m Relay – the USA has won 15 out of a possible 21 Olympic titles and will have the trio who took a clean sweep in the Men's 400m, LaShawn Merritt, Jeremy Wariner and David Neville, at their disposal.
The United States Women's 4 x 400m Relay team also looks strong, but Jamaica, led by Novelene Williams and individual 400m silver medalist Shericka Williams, also look a good medal chance.
The United States will expect to do well elsewhere in Beijing on Friday (August 22). There is a morning start in the Beach Volleyball Men's final between the United States's Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers, who play Brazil's Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes.
Fabio Magalhaes (L) and Marcio Araujo of BrazilUS teams won gold medals at Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 (Beach Volleyball didn't enter the Olympic roster until 1996) but missed out in Athens. The two teams have played each other seven times, with Araujo and Magalhaes winning five matches. If Dalhausser and Rogers win, then both Men's and Women's Beach Volleyball gold medals will go to the United States, after Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh's victory in the Women's final.
China makes its appearance in an Olympic Hockey final for the first time and will take on World No. 1 the Netherlands in the Women's final, while Argentina and Germany will fight it out for the bronze medal.
The Netherlands will not want a repeat performance of their 2-1 loss to Germany in the 2004 Athens finals and will look for their second-ever Olympic Hockey gold medal.
The United States will also be on the medal march in the rescheduled, first-held Men's and Women's BMX Cycling finals – although Britain's Shanaze Reade, a two-time defending BMX world champion, might break the anticipated US hegemony of the events. Kyle Bennett may also be hampered in the Men's final after dislocating his left shoulder in a crash during the quarterfinals.
BMX rider Shanaze ReadeOther finals include the Women's Modern Pentathlon, in which France's Amelie Caze, world champion in 2007 and 2008 and ranked No.1 by the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM), is an obvious favorite.
The Table Tennis Women's Singles semifinals and final take place, with China's chances of a gold medal being high. Only Singaporean player, World No. 6 Li Jiawei, can prevent China from striking gold. She is up against No. 1 Zhang Yining in the semifinal, while Guo Yue and Wang Nan meet in the other match. .
There are two more Taekwondo medals at stake – in the Women's -67kg gold medal, in which Hwang Kyung-seon of the Republic of Korea is the favorite, and Men's -80kg gold final, in which Steve Lopes of the United States has won two Olympic champion titles and four consecutive World Championships.
There are six Canoe/Kayak Flatwater finals also on Friday (August 22). In the Men's Kayak Single (K1) 1000m, defending Olympic champion Eirik Veras Larsen of Norway will compete. The Men's Canoe Single (C1) 1000m will feature Germany's Andreas Dittmer, who claimed gold in the C1 500m event in the 2004 Olympics, C1 1000m event in 2000, and C2 1000m in 1996.
Defending champion Germany and Athens silver medalist Hungary will battle for the Women's Kayak Four (K4) 500m, while at Men's K2 1000m, German duo Martin Hollstein and Andreas Ihle and defending Olympic champion Swedish pair Markus Oscarsson/Anders Gustafsson are expected to do well.
In Men's C2 1000m defending Olympic champion Christian Gille and Tomasz Wylenzek of Germany are highly fancied to win for a second time, and in Men's K4 1000m, two-time defending Olympic champion Akos Vereckei of Hungary goes for a trio of Olympic gold.
Elsewhere it is pretty much Men's semifinals day.
Semifinals in each of the 11 Boxing weight divisions take place. Some of the more interesting bouts feature China's medal favorites Zou Shiming at Light-Flyweight (48kg) and Zhang Xiaopeng at Light-Heavyweight (81kg); Thailand's Manus Boonjumnong, the gold medalist at Athens 2004 at Light Welterweight (64kg); at Middleweight (75kg) two surprise semifinalists James DeGale of Great Britain and Ireland's Darren John Sutherland; and in the Heavyweight (91kg) division, the medal favorite, Clemente Russo of Italy, faces Deontay Wilder of the United States.
In the Basketball Men's semifinals at the Olympic Basketball Gymnasium, Spain, in its fifth consecutive Olympic Games semifinal, take on Lithuania at 10:15 p.m. (UTC/GMT +8), while Athens 2004 gold medalists Argentina face the seemingly invincible United States "redeem team" at the earlier tip-off time of 8:00 p.m. (UTC/GMT +8).
Day 14 Preview: US to go on the medal charge
US basketball players The Men's Handball semifinals are between France and Croatia, which is en route to become the first nation to successfully defend the Olympic gold title. Spain meet Iceland in the other game. It has been 16 years (1992 in Barcelona) since Iceland last made the final four, but they are the tournament's top scorers with 183 goals so far.
The day's Baseball semifinals see the tournament's only undefeated team, the Republic of Korea, play fourth-placed Japan in the first semifinal at 10:30 a.m. (UCT/GMT +8), Second-placed Cuba face third-place finishers the United States in the second semifinal starting at 6:00 p.m. (UCT/GMT +8)
To round off the day's action there is a Men's Football bronze medal play off match between the heavily-defeated semifinalists, Brazil and Belgium.
That makes for a busy day 14 at Beijing 2008.
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