Olympic track & field competition begins Friday with four Washington athletes toeing the line...

Four athletes with Washington ties will toe the line in the opening session of track and field Friday at Tokyo's Olympic Stadium.

Latvia's Liga Velvere (Paul Merca photo), a University of Idaho alum and 2015-16 Washington State University volunteer track coach, kicks things off in heat 1 of 5 in the women's 800 meters at 10:25 am Tokyo time (6:25 pm Thursday evening Pacific time).

Velvere, a two time world indoor championships competitor and a semifinalist at the 2019 world outdoor championships in Doha, will need to finish in the top 3 in her heat or have one of the six fastest times to advance to the semifinals on Saturday evening.

Bonney Lake HS graduate Jordin Andrade of Cape Verde makes his second Olympic Games appearance in the 400 hurdles, as he runs his first round heat at 11:49 am Tokyo time (7:49 pm Thursday evening Pacific time).

Andrade will need to finish in the top four in his heat or have one of the four fastest times to advance to Sunday night's semifinals.

In Friday night's session, Washington alums Amy-Eloise Markovc of Great Britain and Izzi Batt-Doyle of Australia are both in the second heat of the women's 5000 meters at 7:26 pm (3:26 am Pacific time) along with 17 other athletes. 

Both are looking to finish in the top five or have one of the five fastest times to advance to the finals on Monday night.

The start lists for all days of track and field competition at the Tokyo Olympics are available at the World Athletics microsite.

WORLD ATHLETICS STATS BOOK FOR TOKYO OLYMPICS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD...

World Athletics has produced one of the most extensive statistical books of the Olympics, edited by statistician extraordinaire Mark Butler, in collaboration with the Association of Track & Field Statisticians.

It features a wealth of information, including results and reports of all 998 Olympic finals to date. There are also all-time medals tables, statistics on the oldest and youngest athletes in Olympic history, a full country index, plus much more.

You can download the ebook here.

Don't forget that paulmerca.blogspot.com's preview of the Tokyo Olympic track & field competition and specifically information about the athletes with Washington ties competing is available as a .pdf file for you to download and print.

It has biographical information, as well as the dates and times those athletes will be competing. As an added bonus, the Tokyo Olympic track & field timetable is converted to Pacific time, so you can wake up and watch your favorite Washington athlete live.

You can download our preview here.

Tokyo Olympic Bios by Paul Merca

NOTE: The Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee, Track & Field News, USA Track & Field, World Athletics, and various sports information offices contributed to this report.

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