Big Battles in Men's Track and Volleyball Highlight Thursday

• Aug 21, 2008 05:27 PM ET
• by Richard1211

The main event on Thursday night's card is a predicted showdown between American sprinters Jeremy Wariner and LaShawn Merritt in the men's 400-meter dash. Wariner is the defending Olympic champion and was nearly invincible between 2004 and '07. But Merritt, silver medalist behind Wariner at the 2007 world championships, finally caught up this year and knocked off his rival twice, most notably at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. At the time of this posting, the race has already been run in Beijing. (But I'm living in a spoiler-free zone.) NBC will air it on an extended tape delay tonight in prime-time.

Another big showdown - this one live - pits Americans Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers against Brazil's Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes in the men's beach volleyball gold-medal match. That's scheduled to begin at 11 pm/ET.

Also in prime-time, the rain-delayed BMX cycling semifinals and finals are expected to go off live, around 9 pm/ET.

The U.S. men's volleyball team plays Russia in the semifinals, live at 12:35 am/ET, on NBC's late-night show. The Americans have been incredibly resilient in the face of the tragic murder of their coach's father-in-law as the Olympics began. They went 5-0 in pool play and then beat Serbia in the quarterfinals in five sets on Wednesday.

On Friday morning, the U.S. men's water polo team plays Serbia in the semifinals That'll be available at 7:40 am/ET at NBCOlympics.com. The other semi - Hungary vs. Montenegro - will air live on USA at 6:20 am/ET.

Men's basketball has also reached the semifinal round, with the U.S. playing defending Olympic champion Argentina (10:15 am/ET, NBC). Four years ago in Athens the Argentines knocked off the Americans at this stage of the tournament.

The bronze medal game in men's soccer team pits Belgium and Brazil, live at 7 am/ET, on MSNBC. (The U.S. team never made it out of the group stage.)