Athens - The best all-around male athlete in the world will be crowned at the Athens Olympics on Tuesday with the climax to the decathlon, while in Salonika Iraq's footballers continue their fairytale run with a semi-final against Paraguay.
A victory over Paraguay will guarantee Iraq only its second ever Olympic medal, an achievement which would have been deemed impossible just two weeks ago.
Iraq stunned Portugal in their opening match and then edged Australia in the quarter-finals to stand just 90 minutes away from a gold medal showdown against either Argentina or Italy.
"We have been carrying the dreams of a whole nation," said veteran coach Adnan Hamd of the joy the Iraqi football success has brought a war-weary country.
"That puts us in an extremely difficult position. But everyone in Iraq is happy now. Our achievements can make them forget a little about their problems."
As the football tournament works its way to the medal matches, athletics offers up six of the 14 golds going on Tuesday.
Kazakhstan's Dimitry Karpov, the 2003 world championships decathlon bronze medallist, led the 10-discipline event after the first day, but world record-holder Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic was breathing down his neck.
Sebrle, silver medallist behind Erki Nool in Sydney, was ahead of Karpov in three of the first five events.
'Third time lucky'
As the decathletes battled through their final five events for the right to be called the world's best all-around athlete, Morocco's Hicham El Gerrouj was concerned only with validating his long reign in one event - the 1 500m - with an elusive Olympic gold
The world record-holder and four-time world champion fell at the 1996 Atlanta Games, and was stunned in 2000 by Kenya's Noah Ngeny after winning 28 straight finals heading into the Sydney Games.
"I am confident it will be third time lucky for me. Just wait and see, I'll make you believe me," El Gerrouj vowed.
In the men's pole vault, self-coached American Toby Stevenson has his sights set on gold after this year becoming only the ninth man in history to clear six meters.
Finals were also on the slate in show jumping, beach volleyball, diving, weightlifting and sailing.
At the Olympic velodrome, sprinters moved into the spotlight with two-time world champion Laurent Gane of France hoping to keep himself in contention for Tuesday night's men's final after missing out on bronze in Sydney.
He faced a ride-off for the medal round against Australian Ryan Bayley, while world champion Theo Bos of the Netherlands and German Rene Wolff were both into the semi-finals.
