Projo Sports Blog

AP Photo

Saunderstown's Elizabeth Beisel -- shown competing today -- had the fastest time in the five women's 400 individual medley qualifying heats, winning her race in a time of 4:34.55 (results.beijing2008.cn), and will compete for the 2008 Olympics gold medal in the event tonight.

The gold-medal race is scheduled to begin at 10:42 a.m. Sunday morning in Beijing, which is 10:42 p.m. Saturday night in Rhode Island. The race will be televised live by NBC.

The qualifying heats will be shown on tape by NBC in an Olympic programming block that is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Saturday morning.

Beisel edged her United States teammate Katie Hoff -- the world record-holder in the event -- for the fastest qualifying time; Hoff won her heat, the fifth, in 4:34.63. Hoff's world-record time in the event is 4:31.12.

The other competitors in the gold-medal race, besides Beisel and Hoff, will be Stephanie Rice of Australia (who had a qualifying time of 4:35.11), Alessia Filippi of Italy (4:35.11), Yana Martynova of Russia (4:36.25), Li Xuanxu of China (4:36.35), Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe (4:36.43) and Hannah Miley of Great Britain (4:36.56).

Click here for the official results of the first heat, the second heat, Beisel's heat (the third), the fourth heat and the fifth heat.

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