May 18, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 12, 1429

LOS ANGELES, May 17: World champions Allyson Felix and Tyson Gay bid for 100- and 200-metre doubles here on Sunday at the Adidas Track Classic while fellow American world champion Jeremy Wariner faces a stellar 400m field.

Less than three months before the start of athletics competition at the Beijing Olympics, US stars will test themselves ahead of upcoming top-level international meets on US soil and the Olympic trials that begin June 27.

Gay, the reigning 100 and 200 world champion, will defend the 100 crown he won in a wind-aided time of 9.79 seconds against a field including 2007 world runner-up Derrick Atkins of Bahamas, reigning Olympic 200 champion Shawn Crawford and world 200 bronze medallist Wallace Spearman.

Xavier Carter, third-fastest at 200 metres behind Michael Johnson and Gay, and Rodney Martin, four at last year’s worlds, will test Gay in the 200.

Reigning world and Olympic 200 women’s champion Felix will defend her meet title at the distance against 2004 Olympian Lashaunte’a Moore, second here last year, and race with six of other world top 10 in an impressive 100m line-up.

A potential Beijing final preview includes the four top finishers from last year’s worlds in Osaka, led by Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown, the reigning world champion.

Lauryn Williams, second to Campbell-Brown at Osaka after winning the 2005 world title, joins Felix, who ran this year’s world-best time of 10.93 seconds last week, and Carmelita Jeter, third in the worlds, in the line-up.

Jamaica’s Kerron Stewart, second in the world this year at the distance, and 400m standout Sanya Richards will join defending meet champion Torri Edwards in the field.

World and Olympic champion Wariner’s 400m rivals include world 400 hurdles champion Kerron Clement and US countryman Darold Williamson, a 4x400 world and Olympic relay champion plus Canada’s Tyler Christopher, second at the 2007 Pan Am Games.

Kenyan-born US standout Bernard Lagat, who achieved a 1,500 and 5,000 double at last year’s worlds, will run the 1,500 Sunday.

Four-time world champion and 1996 Olympic winner Allen Johnson will face two-time Olympic runner-up and reigning US and meet champion Terrence Trammell in the 110 hurdles while reigning Olympic champion Joanna Hayes is tested by world indoor champion Lolo Jones in the women’s 100 hurdles.

US rivals Adam Nelson, a two-time Olympic runner-up and 2007 world runner-up after winning the 2005 title, and Christian Cantwell, a two-time world indoor champion and 2008 world leader at 21.76m, will meet in the shot put.—AFP