Shot put trio advances to Friday night final; Fountain leads hep

BEIJING - Team USA's powerful men's shot put trio advanced to tonight's final and the sprint crew breezed through the first round during Friday morning qualifying sessions at the Bird's Nest.

World champion Reese Hoffa (Athens, Ga.) was the first to meet the automatic qualifying mark of 20.40m in the shot, throwing 20.41m/66-11.5 to advance to Friday night's final at 9 p.m. local time. Overall it was the sixth-best throw of the day. Two-time silver medalist Adam Nelson (Charlottesville, Va.) also moved on with his first throw of 20.56m/67-5.5, the second-best mark of qualifying, and World Indoor champion Christian Cantwell (Columbia, Mo.) had the #4 mark of the day with his toss of 20.44m/67-0.75, on his second throw.

Sprinting to quarterfinals

The men's 100m sprinters also had a fairly easy time in Friday morning's first round, moving on to the evening's quarterfinals. World champion Tyson Gay (Lexington, Ky.) won the fifth heat in 10.22, Darvis Patton (Ft. Worth, Texas) was second in heat 6 (10.25) and Walter Dix (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) was third in heat 7 (10.35) to automatically advance.

Fountain leads hepathlon

In the first day of the heptathlon, Hyleas Fountain (Kettering, Ohio) stood strongly in the lead after winning each of the first two events. Fountain posted the fastest performance in the 100m hurdles, 12.78 (1,158), and a personal best 1.89m/6-2.25 (1,093) in the high jump to total 2,215. Anna Bogdanova of Russia stood in second overall with 2,165. Jacquelyn Johnson (Tempe, Ariz.) was 11th with 2,032 points after marks of 13.22 in the hurdles (1091) and 1.77m/5-9.75 in the high jump (941). Diana Pickler strained her right hamstring while running the hurdles and could not continue. The heptathlon shot put and 200m are scheduled for this evening.

More qualifying

Americans had a rough go of it in the women's 800m first round as none of the three advanced. Alice Schmidt (Chula Vista, Calif.) was sixth in heat 2 in 2:02.33. Nicole Teter (Eugene, Ore.) pulled up shortly after the start of her race and did not finish due to an exacerbation of a lower left leg injury. Three-time Olympian Hazel Clark (Knoxville, Tenn.) was fifth in heat 5 in 2:01.59.

A.G. Kruger (Ashland, Ohio) was 27^th overall the in men's hammer qualifying (71.21m/233-7) and did not advance.

For more information on Team USA at the Olympic Games, including athlete quotes, event schedule, TV schedule and complete results, visit www.usatf.org