Women’s 10,000m to be among the 13 athletics events to take place during morning sessions at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

A number of finals are due to be held as part of morning athletics sessions at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the IAAF has said.

The five road events – men’s and women’s marathons, the men’s 50km race walk and the two 20km race walks – plus eight finals held in the stadium are set to be staged in the morning.

IAAF competitions director Paul Hardy explained how this decision had been made at the request of the Rio local organising committee and the Olympic Broadcasting Service, supported by the International Olympic Committee.

“Having finals in the morning will also ensure that we receive maximum visibility for athletics at the Olympics across all time zones,” he said.

Of the eight finals held during morning sessions in the stadium, there is due to be an even split between male and female events, as well as between track and field events.

The women’s 10,000m is set to be the first morning final on the opening day of athletics action.

“We are obviously hoping that this will be an exciting race and set the tone for the whole of the athletics programme in Rio,” said Hardy.

“Our prevailing view was that the leading distance runners will welcome this change to the athletics programme 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.”

A more detailed competition programme is yet to be released.

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