Usain Bolt bids for golden treble in 4x100 relay

Beijing: Jamaica's world record-setting double Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt will look to complete a golden treble Friday in the men's 4x100-meter relay at the Bejing Games.

Jamaica's path to gold in both the men's and women's relays was smoothed when the United States failed to qualify thanks to botched baton hand-offs in the heats of both.

Bolt, who celebrated his 22nd birthday on Thursday, didn't run in the relay preliminaries, but Dwight Thomas, Michael Frater, Nesta Carter and former 100m world record-holder Asafa Powell secured his chance at a third medal, while Jamaica's dominant women sprinters led the way into their final.

Powell predicted that with Bolt in the lineup on Friday, the 15-year-old world record of 37.40sec was in jeopardy.

"With Usain in it, it's going to be an awesome race," Powell said.

The relays were among seven gold medals on offer at the Bird's Nest.

They included the decathlon, in which American Brian Clay held an 88-point lead after the first day of the 10-discipline event, the women's long jump, men's pole vault, women's 5000m and the men's 50km walk.

The first Olympic gold medals were to be awarded in BMX cycling - a day after heavy rain forced postponement of men's and women's competition.

Adherents of the sport, an anagram for bicycle moto cross, were looking forward to their moment on the Olympic stage.

"This is a big opportunity to be at the Olympic Games, and now everyone gets to enjoy this crazy little sport," said France's Ann-Caroline Chausson.

Host China will be looking for an upset in their first ever Olympic women's hockey final, in which they take on overwhelming favorites the Netherlands.

In contrast, China hold the whip in women's table tennis, with three proven champions through to the semi-finals of the women's singles giving them more than reasonable expectations of claiming gold.

The United States, lagging behind China in the gold medal count but leading the overall medal tally, will take on Brazil in the gold medal match of men's beach volleyball, while gold will also be awarded in canoeing, modern pentathlon and taekwondo.