Xavier Carter signals he is the 'X-man' after his meet record win in Zürich (© Getty Images)
USA's Xavier Carter is scheduled to compete in the 400m at the Sydney Track Classic on Saturday 28 February and in the Peter Norman Memorial 200m at the World Athletics Tour Melbourne on Thursday 5 March.
The Melbourne fixture is a Grand Prix status event as part of the 25 strong meetings of the IAAF World Athletics Tour 2009.
Known as the ‘X-man’ for his famous crossed arm victory salute, Carter shocked the track and field world in 2006 with what was the second fastest 200m of all-time (19.63 seconds) at the Athletissima meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.
At the time, only Michael Johnson's World record of 19.32 seconds from the Atlanta Olympic Games was faster.
In the same year, Carter historically won four titles at the prestigious NCAA Championships in the 100m, 400m, 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay, becoming the first athlete since Jesse Owens to win four gold medals and the first athlete to win both the 100m and 400m.
Since then his 2007 and 2008 seasons have been marred by a knee injury, and the 23-year-old is keen to kick start his 2009 campaign with a breakthrough summer in Australia as he looks towards August’s World Championships in Berlin.
"After being injured this past summer I wanted to get back on track as fast as possible,” said Carter. “I have heard so many great things about the meets in Australia that I thought that there was no better place to start my outdoor season!"
Carter’s inclusion in the two top Australian meetings follows news earlier this week that Asafa Powell and a host of other Caribbean talents have also been lined up for the Sydney and Melbourne meets - see 'Related Content' under the photo to the right of this message.
David Culbert and Michelle Cook for the IAAF
