Day 4 of the Olympics--Morning session...

8:55 pm--The Achilles problem for Liu is worse than it appears! After a false start i the last heat, Liu pulls up and hobbles. He's limping... he's GOING BACK IN THE READY ROOM! This is an national disaster, as Parker IM's me!

After all that, David Payne (13.42) & David Oliver (13.30) win their heats and advance to the next round. The three women's hammer throwers, Loree Smith, Amber Campbell, and Jessica Cosby were never factors and didn't advance.

This is is for now--we'll see you later.

8:45 pm--The curse of Bubba Thornton continues, as no triple jumpers qualify. Hurdler Terrance Trammell just pulled up with an injury. He exits with dignity as the stadium rings with jiaoyou for Liu Xiang, as Parker writes.

8:10 pm--Men's 110 hurdles are underway. Dayron Robles just won the first of six heats in 13.39, very easily for the Cuban world record holder.

8:00 pm--With one round to go, the US triple jumpers, Aarik Wilson, Kenta Bell, and Rafeeq Curry are in danger of not making the final. Wilson was fifth at the world championships last year.

7:50 pm--Highlights of the 200--Bolt (20.64) looked so easy; ditto for Wallace Spearmon (20.46). Walter Dix (20.77) appears sluggish--maybe the long season is catching up to him; Shawn Crawford won heat 1 in 20.61.

7:35 pm--Here's a link to an nbcolympics.com report on Liu Xiang's ailing Achilles tendon...

7:25 pm--We are in heat 4 of the 200 first round heats. In the world feed, they just flashed Usain Bolt of Jamaica, and Liu Xiang on the screen, which brings a big reaction from the crowd.

7:05 pm--The first of eight heats in the men's 200 are lining up. On the field, men's triple jump is underway.

6:55 pm--After the first hour of the meet, no real surprises, as the usual suspects, including all three Americans-Jeremy Wariner, LaShawn Merritt, & David Neville-all advanced out of the first round of the men's 400 meter dash.

Perhaps the biggest name knocked out of the first round is Canada's Tyler Christopher, who was a world championships finalist last year, as he ran 45.67 in heat 6 (top 3 in each heat plus 3 fastest).

5:55 pm--Liu Xiang (photo courtesy Nike).

That's all you need to know as we get set for day four of the Olympic track & field competition. We'll have heats of the 110 high hurdles with one billion sets of eyes on China's face of the Games, the men's 4oo featuring Americans Jeremy Wariner and LaShawn Merritt, and the men's 200, as Usain Bolt runs his better event.

Will Bolt come close to Michael Johnson's 19.32 from the Atlanta Olympics?

The women's hammer, and the men's triple jump are on the docket in Beijing this morning.

Just a scheduling reminder for the evening session--Federal Way's Aretha Thurmond will throw in the finals of the women's discus at 7 pm, Beijing time (4 am in Seattle).

We'll post updates from Monday morning periodically. Don't forget to check nbcolympics.com for live scoring updates, and Parker Morse's live blog on the iaaf.org site as well.