Olympic 2016 Results: Tracking Medal Count for Each Country on Friday
Athletics will make its long-awaited debut at the Rio 2016 Olympics on Friday as the track and field portion of this year's Summer Games finally gets under way, with medals already there to be won.
Specifically, the women's 10,000-metre final and the men's 20-kilometre race walk will offer the first medals, but countries from all corners of the world hold podium hopes on Day 7 of the summer blockbuster.
There will also be medals handed out in cycling, rowing, swimming, archery, tennis, shooting, gymnastics and swimming, where Michael Phelps hopes to add to his haul of 22 Olympic golds in the 100-metre butterfly.
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Read on for a preview of Friday's biggest medal opportunities, and here's how the overall medal table looks as things stand:
Great Britain Seek Another Cycling Haul
Fresh after the men's team of Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner collected gold in the team sprint on Thursday, two more potential gold medals lay in sight for Great Britain on Day 7.
The latest podium to be decided on the track this Friday will be the men's team pursuit, and bookmaker Coral noted the quartet of Steven Burke, Ed Clancy, Owain Doull and Bradley Wiggins have a good chance at gold:
But before that, the team of Elinor Barker, Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell-Shand and Katie Archibald will have their chance at gold in the women's team sprint final, where they rank as a heavy favourite.
A ride of four minutes and 13.26 seconds on Thursday saw them set a new world record in the event, per Cycling Weekly, and the Britons can afford to hold out high hopes of more gilded glory.
Phelps Going for Yet More Gold
Of course, another figure who can afford to fantasise of more precious metal in his trophy cabinet is American swimming phenomenon Michael Phelps, who prepares for the men's 100-metre butterfly on Friday.
The Baltimore Bullet's latest exploit was taking a fourth gold of the 2016 Olympics in Thursday's 200-metre individual medley final, and as the images showed, it wasn't even a race in the end:
Phelps has proved himself to be almost superhuman in the water over the course of a career spanning a decade-and-a-half, and the 100-metre butterfly gives him a shot at Rio medal No. 5 on Day 7.
Madeline DiRado also looks to give the United States another medal in her 200-metre backstroke final, while the men's 50-metre freestyle and women's 800-metre freestyle finals complete Friday's medal races.
Jessica Ennis-Hill Makes Her Bow
Without doing a disservice to the rest of the events on show, athletics has been a long time coming for Olympic fans this summer, and Britain's Jessica Ennis-Hill can be as confident as any in the women's heptathlon.
However, Britain is also fortunate to have more than one star in the mix this year, and former Olympian Kelly Sotherton has analysed Katarina Johnson-Thompson's chances of challenging, per the Times' Alex Kay-Jelski:
Not that Johnson-Thompson, 23, is new to the elite circuit, but it will certainly be a case of experience versus youth when she competes against Ennis-Hill, 30, for heptathlon gold.
Friday will see the women's heptathlon get under way with the 100-metre hurdles, swiftly followed by high jump qualifying before capping Day 7 off with the 200-metre dash heats.
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