8/13/08
By Mitch Phillips

BEIJING, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Athletics finally joins the Olympic party on Friday and wastes little time getting to the most eagerly-awaited event of the Games with the 100 metres final on Saturday.

World record holder Usain Bolt, Jamaican compatriot Asafa Powell and world champion Tyson Gay, all sub-9.8 second runners, are heading for possibly the greatest 100 metres final and one that should thrust athletics spectacularly back into the spotlight.

"Last week we didn't have a track and we didn't have a field but now everything is in place," Lamine Diack, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, said on Tuesday. "So I say: Let the Games begin."