The first track session of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games is finally in the books. The track and field competition began Aug. 1 with the 20-kilometer racewalks, but the in-stadia action started this morning and FloTrack will be covering all the events live.

The daily track and field events are split into morning and evening sessions, with about a 6-7 hour break between the AM and PM schedule. Today's AM session was highlighted by the first 3 events of the men's decathlon, the first two rounds of the women's 100 meters, the men's 1500m first round, and qualification stages of the men's hammer throw and women's high jump.

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The first Friday session on Aug. 2 ran from 10:05 AM Paris time up to the conclusion of the men's decathlon shot put, which started at 12:15 PM local time and ended around 1 PM. On the U.S. East Coast, that's from 4:05 AM to around 7 AM.

2024 Olympic Track And Field Instant Recap, Friday, Aug. 2 AM Session

Men's Decathlon: Leo the Lion Leads

With the late withdrawal of world record holder Kevin Mayer announced yesterday, it was clear that the decathlon podium was up for grabs by anyone hungry enough to take it. Defending champ Damian Warner of Canada led the 100m as expected, but college track fans would be happy to see that NCAA record-holder Leo Neugebauer nearly won his heat, and followed that up with a 7.76m jump and a 16.55m shot put throw. He leads the standings over Warner 2876 to 2798, but anything can happen with 7 events still to go.

Women's 100m Quarter-Finals: Sha'Carri Is Ready... Will her start be there?

After the first round placements were drawn following the preliminary round, TV and stadium audiences were delighted to see 2023 World Champion Sha'Carri Richardson running in the first heat. With her primary Jamaican rival Shericka Jackson out of the 100m to focus on the 200m, Richardson has a clear path to the gold medal if she can put together three good races.

One of those races is in the books: she qualified easily, and there's not much to criticize in her 10.94 heat win. It has to be mentioned, though,  that her reaction time of 0.200 seconds was the slowest of all but one of the semifinalists. It's possible Richardson was intentionally starting slow to avoid a false start in the opening round, but she likely won't have that luxury in the semifinals with Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith (10.87), Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Daryll Neita leading the qualifiers and Sha'Carri as the fourth-fastest seed. At the Budapest Worlds last year, Richardson had to rely on a time qualifier to make the finals.

Men's 1500m Quarter-Finals: Hocker and Nuguse Scare but Advance, Kerr Wins, Jakob Cruises

Surprisingly, the arguable Olympic favorite Josh Kerr had not run a proper 1500m this year to date, though he did beat defending champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen at the Bowerman Mile earlier this year. That changed today, and Kerr looked cool as a cucumber in winning the first heat. Behind him not all was well, though, as Yared Nuguse was caught up in a battle for the 6th and final auto-qualifier and only barely made it through, placing 5th with a tenth of a second separating 5th through 7th. In the second heat, American Trials champ Cole Hocker ran on the rail for most of the race, and with 400m to go it looked as if he might be boxed in. He managed to swing wide to qualify placing 2nd to Ermias Girma. Ingebrigtsen, who is clearly taking no chances this Olympics after having illness issues at previous global championships, performed a masterclass in patience and tactical skill as he expectedly let the field gap him in the first hundred meters only to reel them in and cruise to a third-place qualification behind Stefan Nillessen and the final American Hobbs Kessler.

When Are The Paris 2024 Olympic Games?

The Olympics begin on July 26 and end on August 11. The track and field events will begin on Aug. 1. 

FloTrack Is The Streaming Home For Many Track And Field Meets Each Year

Don’t miss all the track and field season action streaming on FloTrack. Check out the FloTrack schedule for more events.

FloTrack Archived Footage

Video footage from each event will be archived and stored in a video library for FloTrack subscribers to watch for the duration of their subscriptions.

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