Aziz in all-star 100 metres cast in Rome

ROME: Ghana?s Aziz Zakari, who won the 100 at this year?s first Golden League meeting in Paris, will take on world record holder Asafa Powell and Olympic champion Justin Gatlin in a star-studded 100 metres race at the Golden Gala meeting in Rome today.

The event is billed as having the best field since last year?s Olympic sprint final in Athens. It is impossible to find a weak link in the lineup for the race, which contains a supporting cast that reads like a Who?s Who of current sprinting greats.

Former world and Olympic champion Maurice Greene, world champion Kim Collins, Olympic silver medallist Francis Obikwelu, Olympic 200 winner Shawn Crawford and world champion John Capel bid to upset the favourites.

The race will be Powell?s first real test since he clocked 9.77 at the Athens Super Grand Prix last month to clip one hundredth of a second off Tim Montgomery?s previous world mark. Having assumed the title of the world?s fastest man, the 22-year-old Jamaican is already busy dampening expectations and insisting the race is merely a stepping stone on the way to the world championships in Helsinki starting on August 6. ?My life has changed since the world record. Everyone wants me, but I am always the same person,? Powell was quoted as saying on the website of the sport?s governing body, the International Asocciation of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

No promise: ?I can?t promise a world record in Rome. The key this year is to remain injury-free before the world championships. My focus is to win the world title.? If Powell reproduces his early season form, he will be extremely hard to beat. He already holds the four fastest times this year, although a thigh injury sustained while winning the national title late last month has cast doubt over his fitness. Gatlin, meanwhile, will be eager to reassert his reputation as a sprinter for the big occasion.

The 23-year-old American pipped Powell on a photo-finish at their last meeting in Eugene at the beginning of June. However, his best legal time this season a 10-seconds dead performance to win the USA Track and Field title later that month suggests he has yet to recapture his Olympic form. A third-place finish in 10.03 at the Lausanne Super Grand Prix event on Tuesday will not have boosted his confidence. Gatlin and Powell are putting their reputations on the line in Rome. If they fail to live up to their billing, there is no lack of pretenders poised to deliver a damaging psychological sucker punch in the run-up to Helsinki. reuters