Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor

BEIJING:

A SIXTY-YEAR drought, dating back to Jamaica's first entry in the Olympics in 1948, could end in just under 10 seconds at the Beijing Olympic Stadium, popularly known as the 'Bird's Nest', this weekend.

The world's two fastest men, Usain Bolt, the world record holder for 100m, and Asafa Powell, the former record holder who chalked up three wins coming into Beijing, will line up in the heats of the event on Friday morning. One of the two should give Jamaica its first 100m Olympic title on Saturday in the 91,000-capacity stadium.

Up first will be Bolt. He runs in the first of 10 heats with Powell in heat two. Jamaica's other entry, Michael Frater, the 2005 World Championships silver medallist, will run in heat four. The man the top two Jamaicans see as their main rival, American Tyson Gay, will start in heat five.

Three Jamaican men have gone close to gold in the 100m at the Games. The legendary Herb McKenley lost by a whisker to American Lindy Remigino in 1952, Lennox Miller separated two great American sprinters for silver in 1968, while Donald Quarrie, the technical leader here in Beijing, was clipped by Trinidad and Tobago's Hasely Crawford in 1976.

Grand chance

With World Champion Tyson Gay just returning from injury and going on to the big stage immediately, the general feeling is that gives one of Jamaica's big guns a grand chance to be on top of the podium.

Jamaica's two main men have not said a lot about their chances in the hours leading up to the start of one of the biggest clashes of the Games. In fact, the lead-up to the start of track and field has been overshadowed by news that Jamaica's leading sprinters have been getting too much attention from the anti-doping authorities.

The Jamaican camp could protest the unusual attention the island's top 15 athletes have been attracting from drug testers. According to reports coming out of the Jamaican camp, between August 3 and 8, Powell was asked to give an equivalent of a tablespoon of blood four times. Bolt had to go through the same process three times. An Associated Press report quoted Gay as saying he was blood-tested once and urine-tested just once since arriving in Beijing. The blood samples are being taken to have on record a profile of the athletes' blood.

On the track tomorrow Bolt, who has vowed to "to go out there, stay focused and run", will have as his main rival, training partner Daniel Bailey of Antigua and Barbuda in heat one.

Powell faces former World Champion Kim Collins of St Kitts and Nevis and rising British sprinter Craig Pickering, while Frater will have his training partner, Trinidad and Tobago's Darrell Brown, as his chief rival in heat four. Tyson Gay and Olusoji Fasuba, Nigeria's best sprinter, will line up in heat five.

National coach Bertland Cameron said yesterday at the Games Village that Jamaica's athletes are ready to compete.

"There are no injuries and I think that when we look at the mood - mentally and physically they are ready to go. We are looking for good performances and so far things are going well. We just have to sit back now and wait and see how the athletes perform when they go out there."

While most of the attention will be on the sprinters, a number of other athletes will begin competition. National record holder Dorian Scott, who led the world rankings early in the season, competes in the shot put. He has been throwing well and could surprise with a medal.

Tough early test

Kenia Sinclair faces a tough early test in the women's 800m heats as she lines up against Kenya's superwoman, 18-year-old Pamela Jelimo, whose best time in 2008 is 1:54.97. Sinclair's year's best is 1:59.0.

Athens silver medallist Danny McFarlane starts his campaign in the 400m hurdles, along with Markino Buckley and Isa Phillips.

The always-confident Phillips said he is ready to go.

"We have come a long way. I had some problems earlier with having 21 strides to the first hurdle - now we have stepped it up to 20. So now we get out faster and will get it done, no doubt," Phillips said. The former St Andrew Technical High student added that his sights are on the final and he is ready to run '48 low'.

Trecia Smith, who has been dogged by injury in the last two years, and steeplechasers Korine Hinds and Mardrea Hyman are the other Jamaicans in action tomorrow.