Beijing: The men's 100m final will dominate Day II of the athletics at the Olympic Games on Saturday, the three fastest men in history going head-to-head - if they safely negotiate the qualifying rounds.
There will be three other medal events, the men's 20km race walk, the women's shot put and the second and final day of the women's heptathlon.
Heats and quarter-finals of the 100m take place on Friday, with the semi-finals coming two-and-a-half hours before the final at 10:30 pm (1430GMT).
The highly-anticipated event has been rightly billed as one of the most exciting sprint contests ever, pitching reigning world double sprint champion Tyson Gay against Jamaican duo Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt.
The trio come into the event with an impressive list of credentials.
Gay has shown he has the big race temperament having won the world title last year whilst Bolt owns the world record of 9.72 seconds and Powell is the former world record holder.
However, there are question marks hanging over all three which may allow for someone else such as American youngster Walter Dix to gatecrash the party.
Gay is returning after a hamstring injury which has left him without a race for over a month, Bolt is untried over a championship series of 100m races and Powell's ability to handle the pressure on the big stage is still questionable.
The women's heptathlon will reach its climax with the sapping 800m run scheduled to finish just before the men's blue riband event.
The Beijing Games gold medallist will not be reigning champion Carolina Kluft, the Swede who has recorded 22 multi-event wins in a row (19 heptathlon, 3 indoor pentathlon) having opted to concentrate on Long Jump and Triple Jump competitions this season.
Kluft's place will not be easy to fill, but in her absence the seven-discipline event is shot open.
Ukraine's Lyudmyla Blonska set a national record 6832 total points winning the world silver medal in Osaka, but has been a little off her 2007 form.
American Hyleas Fountain is the world leader in Heptathlon this season with a 6667 personal best total points at the Olympic Trials and has real chance of a medal in Beijing.
But their strongest rival might be Britain's Kelly Sotherton, bronze medallist at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and in Osaka, but yet to compete in the heptathlon this season.
The women's shot put is destined for tight competition with many athletes hitting 18.80m and above.
But it seems it could turn into a duel between world champion Valerie Adams-Vili of New Zealand and a trio of Belarussians, Nadzeya Ostapchuk, Natallia Mikhnevich and Yanina Karolchyk-Pravalinskaya.
The morning's medal event sees the Russian trio of Sergey Morozov, Valeriy Borchin and veteran Ilya Markov competing for gold in the men's 20km Race Walk.
Morozov, 20, set a new world record of 1:16:43 in June but will have his work cut out against his compatriots, defending Olympic champion Ivano Brugnetti of Italy and Athens silver medallist Francisco Javier Fernandez of Spain.
The reigning world champion and Olympic champion from the 1996 Atlanta Games, Jefferson Perez of Ecuador, will make his fourth appearance at the Olympics after finishing a disappointing fourth in both Sydney and Athens.
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