New York, USA - Fifteen years ago this month, Leroy Burrell took full advantage of a 1.9 m/s tailwind to run 9.90 for 100m at New York City's Randall's Island Stadium.

Burrell's performance broke Carl Lewis' World record of 9.92 and unseated Lewis, the defending Olympic champion and the best-known sprinter of the day, for the U.S. national championship. It also set up the tremendous 1991 World Championship final in Tokyo, where Lewis reclaimed the record in 9.86 and both he and Burrell ran the first legal sub-9.90 clockings.

The Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island which will host Saturday's (3 June) Reebok Grand Prix - Area Permit meeting - shares only its location with the old stadium, but there's no question World and Olympic champion Justin Gatlin is excited to run there.

In an April press conference announcing his run here, Gatlin said, "The first time I was in Icahn Stadium," referring to his appearance at the grand opening of the stadium in 2005, "I knew you could run sub-10 on that track. It's New York, hey. It's where I was born, where I was raised. There’s not a lot of tracks I can call home, that have a home feel about them, and I think this can be one of those places for me."

Gatlin, a native of Brooklyn though he left to attend high school in Florida, has yet to race in New York, and since his 9.77 at Doha in May, there's a chance that any race might see him joining Burrell among those who touched the "fastest ever" title twice. He will be joined in the 100m by former U.S. champions Bernard Williams and 200m Olympic champion Shawn Crawford, among others.

The man whose record Gatlin tied, Asafa Powell, will be running Friday (2 June) in Oslo at the IAAF Golden League meeting, so Gatlin won't be alternating heats with him as the two did in Eugene last weekend.

World leading athletes at 200m and 1500m

The 100m isn't the only big sprint race scheduled for Icahn Stadium; the two fastest 200m sprinters in the world this year, Wallace Spearmon, Jr., and Usain Bolt, will butt heads at that distance. 

Spearmon's 20.06 two weeks previously, in Carson, is the current leader; Bolt ran 20.08 in April and 20.10 in May. Bolt won this race in 2005, and since the meet draws a large Jamaican crowd, he will undoubtedly be a crowd favourite this year as well.

Another double winner from Helsinki and current world leader competing in New York is Rashid Ramzi. In the 1500m, Ramzi will face all three medallists from the Commonwealth Games race, with Nick Willis, Nate Brannen and Mark Fountain all slated to compete.

Another Shot showdown

In the last domestic competition before the U.S. Championships, the three leading shot putters in the world will go head to head to head yet again. World leader Christian Cantwell (22.17), 2005 World champion Adam Nelson (21.44), and 2006 World Indoor champion Reese Hoffa (21.18) will tangle here before they meet in Indianapolis later this month. Last weekend in Eugene, Cantwell needed his world leading mark to top Nelson in second.

Women's 400m

IAAF World number 2 ranked Tonique Williams-Darling, the World and Olympic champion headlines the women's 400m.  Like the men's milers, Williams-Darling was in top condition in March, when she picked up a 400m silver medal at the Commonwealth Games, but she bettered her mark from Melbourne when she bested Ana Guevara in 50.28 in May.

Defar at 5000m

World Leader and defending Olympic champion Meseret Defar headlines the women's 5000m. Defar ran 8:33.57 for 3000m in New York last year in humid conditions; this year she will contend with, among others, Blake Russell, who won the 3000m in Carson, CA two weeks ago.

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World 100m champion Lauryn Williams and former World and Olympic champion Marion Jones have been added to the line-up for the women's 100m which already had as its star Olympic 200m gold medallist Veronica Campbell of Jamaica. Campbell took the Olympic 100m bronze in 2004 behind Williams' silver, and is currently with a 10.99 clocking the fastest woman in the world this year.

Parker Morse for the IAAF