Women's Olympic track preview

The Olympics kicked off last night. The main event for the first week will be the swimming, of course, before the heart of the Olympics, track and field, gets going next Friday. In case some of our blog readers haven't been paying avid attention to track in the last four years, I thought I'd provide a viewers guide to some of the best events you're likely to see in the next two weeks - and explanation of why they might be so good. I'll start with some of the women's events and add the men in a later post.

Women's 200: The women's 100 metres will be wide open, with no clear favourite. (Contenders include Americans Lauryn Williams, Torri Edwards and Muna Lee and Jamaicans Kerron Stewart and Sherrone Simpson). The 200 is the opposite, with Allyson Felix of the USA likely to emerge as one of the stars of the Olympics, especially for those of you watching on NBC. Felix is articulate, attractive and quite good - she walloped the field at this distance at the world championships last year, as well as winning a silver in 2004 fresh out of high school. She's also likely to run on both U.S. relay teams, which gives her a good chance at three gold medals. The only cloud on the horizon is a poor race Felix had a couple of weeks ago in Europe, but assuming that was just a blip, you'll see a lot of her. Her main challenge should come from Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica, who won the 100 at the world championships last year but failed to make the Jamaican team in that event this year.

Women's 800: Kenyan Pamelo Jelimo had never run an 800 before this year, but she's established herself as the overwhelming favourite by thrashing defending world champion Janeth Jepkosgei (also Kenyan) several times already this year. Jelimo also lost a significant challenge when Russian Yelena Soboleva was handed a drug suspension last week. Jepkosgei has a lot more experience than Jelimo, which could help close the gap between the two, but if the youngster retains her form she could romp to victory.

Women's 5000: Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar, both of Ethiopia, have taken turns dominating this event over the past few years. Last year it was Defar who both set a world record and won the world championships. This year, Dibaba broke the world record (14:11), although Defar came within a second of getting it back again. If the two actually toe the line for this event (both are entered), it could be a fantastic duel - and don't expect too much in the way of team tactics. Though they are teammates, they reportedly don't like each other very much. Defar ruined a million-dollar payday for Dibaba in 2006 in a terrific race. This one could live up to that if both get going.

Women's 100 metre hurdles: Canada's Perdita Felicien, the 2003 world champion, is out of the Olympics with an injury. My Canadian readers should not lose interest in this event, however; it is easily Canada's deepest track event, and even without Felicien there are two Canadians with longshot chances at a medal. Edmonton's Angela Whyte was seventh in the world last year, while Priscilla Lopes-Schliep has had a very solid campaign so far in 2008. They'll be battling a host of other possible medal contenders, led by Swede Susanna Kallur and American Lolo Jones.

Field events: If Blanka Vlašic was American, she might rival Felix as the queen of the track. Vlašic has won 34 straight high jump competitions, often easily, and is also entertaining - she often does little dances after important clearances. There are some women who could push her (Russians Anna Chicherova and Yelena Slesarenko, Italian Antonietta Di Martino and even Belgian Tia Hellebaut) but if she's on, it's Vlašic's gold to lose. The tall Croatian has taken several attempts at the world record of 2.10 metres, with some close misses; will the adrenaline of the Olympics be enough to push her over the top?...Russian Yelena Isinbayeva dethroned Stacy Dragila and claimed gold in the pole vault in 2004. She's dominated ever since, setting and resetting the world record. Her only serious challenger is American Jenn Stuczynski...The women's javelin won't get much, if any, airtime. Women's throws are largely ignored, even within track, but I'll mention it because it's probably the Czech Republic's best chance for a track gold. The top step on the podium should come down to a dual between Czech Barbora Špotakova (the world champ) and German Christina Obergfall. Another German, Steffi Nerius, is the logical pick for bronze.

If you need some videos to get you even more hyped for the track, here's a couple:
Allyson Felix running away with the 200 at the world championships in 2007

Blanka Vlasic wins the world title and celebrates

-Jason