4 September - Brussels, Belgium - The gods have been smiling in recent weeks on Wilfried Meert, the meeting director of the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels.

In addition to all the show piece events that have been put in place for this year's final meeting in the ÅF Golden League, not least of which is the men's 100m which brings together Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell, the meeting comes at a time when Belgian athletics has hit a high point not seen for more than 40 years.

"We sold out this meeting three weeks ago, never before have we sold out so early but this was even before our successes in Beijing," said a delighted Meert, ahead of the 32nd edition of the historic meeting.

"Tia Hellebaut's high jump victory was Belgium's first gold medal in athletics since Gaston Roelants steeplechase victory in 1964, and it was the first ever for a woman. We also had the women's 4x100 relay silver. You can imagine, this has been huge news for a little country like ours.

"And this means it's big news for our meeting as these athletes will be in front of a home audience. Beijing took a lot out of the athletes but they are extra-motivated to do well here.

"In addition, this meeting is the farewell for Kim Gevaert (Belgium's reigning European 100m and 200m champion). She's very popular, the darling of the Belgian fans, and so this meeting will be very special and very emotional for that reason, no doubt at all.

"Because of all these things, every day since Beijing people have been phoning the office asking for tickets. It's a luxurious problem to have but we've had to tell them no. Even so, people have been phoning back day after day, asking if there are any tickets returned.

"I've even heard of instances where people have been selling tickets on auction sites like Ebay and they have been reaching up to €200 a time. This is crazy, these are the type of prices people pay for a ticket to see the Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix," exclaimed Meert.

However, Meert himself admitted that, unfortunately, his online surfing has been directed elsewhere in the last few days.

"I'm afraid the www.weather.com has become my favourite site over the last week. Not least because they are usually so accurate. Usually, I look at it to see what it the weather is like when I go on holiday for their five day forecast, or a I go to a Scandanavian meeting at the start of the season when you never know what the weather can be like but this year, for the first time, I typed in Brussels because the summer has been so bad here.

"On Sunday the forecast for the meeting was maybe sunny, maybe rain. On Monday it was a little worse, on Tuesday it was a lot worse and at that point I said to myself 'I'm not looking at this anymore'.

"So now, my attitude is 'If the rain comes down, it comes down'. There is no Plan B. If it's raining I can't close the roof as there is no roof on this stadium. Last year, it was raining in the afternoon and then cleared up for the meeting, so hopefully the same will happen this year. There always seems to be a little miracle," added Meert.

Come rain or shine, the men's 100m will still be the star attraction - a reversal to recent years when the middle and long distance events have been in the spotlight - especially in the wake of Asafa Powell's stunning 9.72 in Lausanne on Tuesday, which confirmed that he's still a sprint superstar regardless of his ability to perform at a major championship.

"I think Powell and Bolt will both be very nervous, even though they are two Jamaican guys who are normally very cool and relaxed. There is a lot of pressure, both sides have been talking about this for several days. Both sides have come to me separately and said they don't want to be in a lane alongside each other. They didn't tell me why but I think it's because neither of them wants to go to their blocks shaking with the other guy next to them. I can feel it," said Meert.

"But I don't mind either. When I look at a race on television. I think it's better if people from different countries are separated. I don't want to see Jamaica, lane one, Jamaica, lane two, United States, lane four, United States, lane five. Having them run in different lanes provides a bit of variety for the viewer.

"I've been asked what my personal reaction was to Asafa running 9.72 in Lausanne and it's effect on this race. Well, it was one of frustration because I couldn't see the race I had a television with 52 channels and I was zapping through all of them and couldn't find Eurosport so I had to follow the race of the computer.

"But Asafa was already very impressive in Gateshead (where he ran 9.87 in very wet conditions) and I was then absolutely sure that he was back after the Olympics so that's why this race will be special what ever the conditions.

"I'm not going to predict a time, that's not my job and it also depends on the weather. It could be a metre-per-second wind in their faces or at their backs but I'm certain that it will be a great race as they will both be fighting each other so hard," said Meert, with all the glee of an old style boxing promoter bringing together two titans of the ring like Ali and Frazier or Leonard and Hagler.

Phil Minshull for the IAAF