Worlds Close With a Bang

The best is saved for last, as Usain Bolt will likely close out the 13th IAAF World Championships in the men's 4x100 relay.

The day starts off with the men's marathon. There's a wide-open women's 800 meters, where Caster Semenya could steal the show. The men's 5000 meters will see Mo Farah do battle with Bernard Lagat. Phillips Idowu, track's other greatest showman, takes his act to the triple jump runway. Betty Heidler might give us the meet's only world record in the hammer throw, and the USA and Jamaica do battle in the 4x100 relay.

Schedule, start lists and results
LIVE results and live blog

How to watch

8:00 PM tonight
Live webcasts at UniversalSports.com and CBC.ca/sports/olympics

LIVE TV marathon coverage on Universal Sports

5:00 AM tomorrow
Live webcasts at UniversalSports.com and CBC.ca/sports/olympics

IAAF Radio (free)

1:30 PM tomorrow
TV coverage on NBC

2:00 PM tomorrow
TV coverage on CBC

12:30 AM tomorrow
Late night coverage on CBC

Event-by-event...

Morning Session

8:00 PM -- Men's Marathon
The biggest names entered in this race are Gebre Gebremariam (Ethiopia), the 2010 New York City Marathon champion, and Abel Kirui (Kenya), the defending world champion. Other fast marathoners entered include Vincent Kipruto (Kenya), 2:05:13 PR; Feyisa Lilesa (Ethiopia), 2:05:23 PR; Bazu Worku (Ethiopia), 2:05:25 PR; and Eliud Kiptanui (Kenya), 2:05:39 PR. Most likely, though, is that the winner is a surprise.

Evening Session

5:15 AM -- Women's Hammer Throw Final
Betty Heidler (Germany) is the odds-on favorite in this event. She broke the world record in May and is riding an eight-meet winning streak, during which no one has come within a meter of her. Hammer blogger Martin Bingisser picks Zhang Wenxiu (China) for silver and Yipsi Moreno (Cuba) for bronze, but I think Kathrin Klaas (Germany) will be a factor. America's Jessica Cosby is here as well.

5:30 AM -- Women's 4x100 Relay semifinals
The first two in each heat plus the next two fastest will qualify for the final, to be held later in the evening.
Heat 1 – Jamaica is in lane 2; they are the co-favorites for gold. The others are simply hoping to qualify.
Heat 2 – Trinidad and Tobago might be the best team in this heat, but Great Britain, Ukraine and Russia make it a deep race.
Heat 3 – The USA is in lane 1. Shaky stick work of the last few years is hopefully ironed out. The Bahamas, Nigeria and Germany offer competition.

6:00 AM -- Men's 4x100 Relay semifinal
The first two in each heat plus the next two fastest will qualify for the final, to be held later in the evening.
Heat 1 – The USA is in lane 5. The best of the rest is probably France.
Heat 2 – Jamaica, the prohibitive favorite for gold, is in lane 8. Trinidad and Tobago, another strong team, is in lane 4.
Heat 3 – With no strong medal favorites, this heat is wide open. I figure Great Britain and Canada are the most likely qualifiers.

6:05 AM Men's Triple Jump Final
When wunderkind Teddy Tamgho (France) broke his ankle this summer, Great Britain's Phillips Idowu became the odds-on favorite to win. His greatest challenger may be a young man from Fayetteville, Georgia, named Christian Taylor. The NCAA champ and Bowerman Award finalist won his first Diamond League meet in London last month. Taylor's former Florida teammate, Will Claye, might be capable of a medal as well. Other top jumpers include 22-year-old Sheryf El-Sheryf (Ukraine) and Cubans Alexis Copello and Yoandris Betanzos.

6:40 AM Men's 5000 meters Final
Mo Farah (Great Britain) seeks the gold that was denied him in the 10,000 meters. Bernard Lagat (USA) seeks to regain the gold he won in this event four years ago. Farah's training mate Galen Rupp (USA) could be in the mix as well, plus a bevy of Ethiopians (Imane Merga, Dejen "One Shoe" Gebremeskel, Abera Kuma) and Kenyans (Eliud Kipchoge, Isiah Koech, Thomas Longosiwa).

7:15 AM Women's 800 meter Final
Was the Caster Semenya of 2011 playing possum until now? If so, it would be a controversy we don't need. If that's not the case, then anyone in this race is capable of winning it. Kenia Sinclair (Jamaica) and Mariya Savinova (Russia) are the most accomplished runners of the year, but it's all about being in the right place at the right time and with the right condition. With two entries in Maggie Vessey and Alysia (Johnson) Montano, the USA stands a decent chance of winning a medal.

7:35 AM Women's 4x100 Relay Final
Finalist are yet to be determined. It should be a fantastic race.

8:00 AM Men's 4x100 Relay Final
Finalists are yet to be determined. Figure this to be the third act of the Usain Bolt Show.