Athletics: Young Guns Add Dignity to the Dash

Asafa Powell and Justin Gatlin represent the new breed of 100 metres sprinter. Out has gone the typical brash trash-talking type in the mould of Maurice Greene and Ato Boldon to be replaced by two young men who are unfailingly polite, friendly and modest.

Gatlin is the 23-year-old American who won the Olympic 100m gold medal in Athens last year. His rivalry with Powell, the 22-year-old Jamaican who last month set a 100m world record of 9.77sec, may help reinvigorate the sport over the coming years. "I know he's the guy to gun for," Gatlin said. "There is a changing of the guard. Asafa and I are the pioneers."

They will meet in the Norwich Union London grand prix at Crystal Palace tonight, their first confrontation since Powell set the record in Athens.

The race also features Kim Collins, the world champion from St Kitts, and Britain's Jason Gardener, the world indoor 60m champion. Missing will be Greene, the former world record holder and 2000 Olympic gold medallist, who withdrew last night because of injury.

A groin injury has also cast a doubt over how fit Powell is and he has raced only once since setting the record. He claims it is no longer a major problem but it affected him the last occasion he raced Gatlin. Then he was beaten in a photo finish in a race in Eugene on June 4 where both were given the same time of 9.84.

"That wasn't really a race for me," said Powell. "I just went out there and decided to run 95% because I wasn't 100% there. I didn't give my full potential."

To a sport that had grown used in recent years to the bold pronouncements of Greene, Boldon and Tim Montgomery, Powell could hardly be more different. When he speaks he does so in such a low voice as to be almost inaudible and he has so far avoided making outrageous predictions.

Indeed, when asked to list the three main things behind his success, the first he comes up with is "humbleness". The others are "faith" - he is the son of a preacher - and "hard work".

Powell may be laid back but inside is a burning desire to erase the disappointment of the Olympics last year. There he lined up as the favourite but, overcome by nerves, finished fifth. The world championships in Helsinki next month offer an opportunity to make amends. "In Helsinki there are four rounds but there's only one race and it's the final," he said. "I think I will be able to pull it off."

Gatlin will present a formidable barrier to that ambition. Since his high-school days in Florida he has been labelled the next great American sprinter.

A positive test in 2001 for an amphetamine, which was in a prescribed drug he had taken for years, led to him being banned briefly before being reinstated. The current doping scandal over the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, and the fact that Gatlin is coached by Trevor Graham, who has been associated with several athletes who have been banned for drugs, have led inevitably to cynics casting doubts on his success.

Gatlin confronts the issue head-on. "You are successful at what you do and the first thing people expect is that he is on something," he admitted. "But I know what to say yes to and what to say no to."

He failed to make the US team for the world championships in 2003 but came back last year to win in Athens. He wants that to be just the beginning. "Coming into this season I've had a spark of inspiration in my life," he said.

He nearly failed to qualify for this year's world championships. He was disqualified in the first round of the US trials for a false start but was reinstated after a protest and went on to win the final.

Gatlin is at the forefront of an explosion of exciting talent in the US. Others include Jeremy Wariner, the Olympic 400m champion, Kerron Clement, a 19-year-old who broke Michael Johnson's world indoor 400m record this year, and Allyson Felix, the Olympic 200m silver medallist.

All are competing at Crystal Palace in the highest-quality meeting to be staged in Europe this summer.

The only disappointment for Fast Track, the meeting organiser, is that, such is the paucity of talent in Britain, there will be few world-class home athletes for the 18,000 sell-out crowd to cheer. The best hope of a home winner is Nathan Douglas in the triple jump.

Asafa Powell

Age: 22

Country: Jamaica

Coach: Stephen Francis

Personal best: 9.77 (world record)

Best performance: 5th in 2004 Olympic Games 100m

He says: 'Everyone was excited about me breaking the record and coming home. A lot of people felt a real privilege to even shake my hand and I felt really good about that.'

Justin Gatlin

Age: 23

Country: United States

Coach: Trevor Graham

Personal best: 9.85

Best performance: 2003 world indoor 60m champion, 2004 Olympic 100m champion, 2004 Olympic 200m bronze medallist

He says: 'I have beaten him [Powell] before and I can again. He is almost the same age as me and I can do the same thing.'