The Rio Olympics will hold 13 track and field finals in the morning, including eight stadium events, a first at the Olympics since 1988, according to track and field’s international governing body (IAAF).
The five road races -- men’s and women’s marathon and 20km walks and men’s 50km walk -- will be in mornings.
So will the women’s 10,000m, on the first morning session of the track and field schedule, and seven more to-be-named stadium events. The eight morning stadium finals will be split evenly between men’s and women’s and track and field events.
The Olympic track and field schedule generally starts one week after the Opening Ceremony.
There will be at least one final during each of the six morning sessions in the stadium.
Rio de Janeiro is one hour ahead of Eastern Time during the summer.
The full Olympic track and field competition program, which includes 47 total events, will be released shortly, the IAAF said.
“Staging finals in the morning was done at the request of the Rio LOC [local organizing committee] and the Olympic Broadcasting Service, supported by the International Olympic Committee,” IAAF Competitions Director Paul Hardy said in a press release. “Having finals in the morning will also ensure that we receive maximum visibility for athletics at the Olympics across all time zones.
“Our prevailing view was that the leading distance runners will welcome this change to the athletics program at the Olympics as they will often have competitions throughout the year in the morning, such as road or cross-country races, and so will be accustomed to this timing.”
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