Will it be a good Olympics for another?

The Batman movie "The Dark Knight" has made an extraordinary amount of money this summer. You've probably heard of it. You may not have heard of the Raleigh hurdler nicknamed "Batman," however.

Bershawn "Batman" Jackson acquired his nickname as a kid growing up in Miami because of his large ears and the ease with which he could fly over hurdles. Now he's in the Olympics, competing in the men's 400 hurdles semifinals today.

Jackson went to college at St. Augustine's and has lived and trained in Raleigh ever since. This is his first Olympics, and he's got his mind-set on first place.

"Every kid dreams of being an Olympian," Jackson said. "Every kid dreams of being a gold medalist. Only one person in the world can actually say they are the current Olympic gold medalist. I'm trying to be that one person."

Jackson easily won his qualifying heat Friday to advance to the semifinals. He eased off at the line but still finished first. "I was basically conserving as much energy as possible," Jackson said.

At 5-foot-7 and 154 pounds, Jackson is smaller than most of the hurdlers here. But they don't take him lightly -- he was the 2005 world champion.

Some of Jackson's strongest competition will come from the other two Americans in the event. Angelo Taylor and Kerron Clement also won their qualifying heats Friday. The 400 hurdles has traditionally had a strong American flavor at the Olympics, dating to the days when Edwin Moses used to dominate.

In other track and field results, Tyson Gay coasted through two 100-meter preliminary heats, showing his left hamstring is just fine six weeks after hurting it at the U.S. Olympic trials.

World record-holder Usain Bolt and the guy he took it from, fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell, also advanced easily to the final 16. All three are expected to make today's final -- perhaps the most highly anticipated event of the 10-day track and field meet at the Bird's Nest.

In the men's 1,500, the U.S. trio of Bernard Lagat, Leo Manzano and team flagbearer Lopez Lomong made it out of their first races.

The men's shot put was a big disappointment for the Americans, however. Instead of a possible sweep, they got only a silver from Christian Cantwell. Poland's Tomasz Majewski won gold.

Reese Hoffa, the reigning world champion, was seventh, and his U.S. teammate Adam Nelson, the two-time Olympic silver medalist, threw with hurt ribs and didn't make it into the final eight.

"We expected more from ourselves," Nelson said.

(Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.)

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