Olympics: Beach volleyball

OK. In the interest of fairness and full disclosure, I must say that last night I watched the women's beach volleyball semifinal match between the USA duo of Misty and Kerry (that's how the announcers refer to them, always) and the Chinese team. It was riveting, it was awesome. The Americans won, 22-20, 22-20. I feel the need to admit this after having bashed the incessant coverage of this sport for the past week. But now that we are in the medal round, the coverage is justified, and the action was great.

Now would be a great time to recap that thrilling men's 1,500 final. But alas, by the time NBC aired it (my friend Eric told me this morning on our jog that it was not till close to midnight!) I was long asleep. American Leo Manzano got silver -- the first USA medal in this event in a generation -- and Matthew Centrowitz was a near-miss fourth. Great showing for the ever burgeoning USA distance team.

For complete coverage of this final, as well as the entire Olympics track program, I urge you to go to www.letsrun.com. What a great job they are doing at this wonderful Web site for our sport. I go there -- before the New York Times even! -- for my Olympic track news. Nicely done, LRC.