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The evening session of the opening day of athletics is punctuated by a number of high-profile events, including the women’s 100-metre heats and the men’s 400-metre heats. Join The Roar for live updates and commentary from 9:20am (AEST).
The session begins with the women’s 1500-metre heats, where Australia are represented by Jenny Blundell, Zoe Buckman and Linden Hall.
Buckman is competing at her second Olympics, and will be looking to improve upon her semi-final performance in London. Blundell has been in strong form of late and is also a strong chance of qualifying for the final.
These heats are followed by the preliminary rounds of the men’s 400, one of the most gruelling events on the program. Unfortunately, Australia are without a competitor in this event, after Steve Solomon narrowly missed the qualifying time.
As the 400 heats take place, the men’s long jump qualification round will also kickoff. This event is possibly Australia’s best chance of winning an athletics medal, with Fabrice Lapierre and Henry Frayne both strong contenders. First, though, they are looking to safely progress through to Sunday’s final.
The final event on the track is the first round of the women’s 100-metre sprint. While the preliminary round was held earlier in the day, this is the first time we will see the big guns, including defending Olympic and World Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and European Champion Dafne Schippers. Australia’s representative is Melissa Breen.
The session will also feature the women’s hammer throw qualification round, the continuation of the women’s heptathlon, which commenced in the morning session, and the first field final of the Games, the women’s shot put.
It should be a great day in the track and field – the first in the Olympics. We all know that this, along with the swimming, is one of consistent producer of blue ribbon moments. So follow along with Day 1 of the athletics at the Rio Olympics live.