VIEWERS GUIDE

TIMING: Beijing is 15 hours ahead of Los Angeles. That means as you grab your morning paper at 8 a.m. today, it’s already 11 p.m. in Beijing. Much of the action takes place from about 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. Pacific time. The Times’ daily special section Beijing 2008 has all the information from events that conclude by about 10 p.m. Los Angeles time.

CATCHING UP: For up-to-the-moment news with your morning cup of French roast, go to latimes.com/olympics and pull up the “While you were sleeping” entry on The Times’ Olympic blog, Ticket to Beijing. Times Sports Editor Randy Harvey will fill you in on the big events that took place after you finally turned off coverage of women’s handball and hit the sack.

LIVE TV? Because of the time difference, virtually no competition we see on NBC on the West Coast is live. When you see “Live” in the upper right of your TV screen, that means it’s live on the East Coast, so it’s three hours delayed here.

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COMING UP

TRACK AND FIELD: Last chance to see Lightning Bolt. Insane Bolt. Usain Bolt. Just call him the world’s fastest man. With his anchor leg in the sprint relay, Jamaica also is expected to have the world’s fastest team.

BASKETBALL: Manu Ginobili is probably not going to be able to lead Argentina over the U.S. men’s team in the semifinals as he did four years ago in Athens. But maybe he can help make the game close.

BASEBALL: The United States beat Japan in the final game of the preliminary round and earned the third seeding. Great. That means Davey Johnson’s team gets to play Cuba in the semifinals.