CARSON, California, June 22 - Olympic 400m champion Jeremy Wariner has had a quiet start to the 2005 season, but he’ll be looking to make some noise when he takes on a gaggle of Athens medallists in the US athletics championships starting here on Thursday.
The opening day of the four-day meeting, the US trials for the World Championships in Helsinki, sees the first round of the 400m, which boasts a field including the silver and bronze medallists from Athens Otis Harris and Derrick Brew.
Also in the mix will be Darold Williamson, who anchored Americans gold medal winning 4x400m relay in Athens, and another Olympic relay gold medallist in Andrew Rock and 2004 world junior champion LaShawn Merritt.
It's stacked,'' Wariner said of the field. A couple of athletes who are at the top of the world may not make it as individuals, but go in the relay.’’
Williamson owns the fastest time the world this year of 44.27sec, set in the semi-finals of the US collegiate championships. He won the NCAA title in the second-fastest time of the year of 44.51 for Baylor University - which also produced Wariner and before them world record-holder Michael Johnson.
While Williamson was in form early this season, Wariner said Wednesday he has been concentrating on strength so far this year under coach Clyde Hart.
I've had kind of a slow season,'' he said. I know what coach Hart is trying to get me to do, so I can’t panic about the times. I just have to go out and run my own race and not let it get to me.’’
But Wariner admitted life as the reigning Olympic gold medallist was a challenge.
It's a lot different pressure running as a professional,'' he said. Coming in as Olympic champion, everyone is trying to beat me.’’
After heats and semi-finals on Thursday and Friday, the men’s 400m will conclude on Saturday.
The men’s and women’s 100m begin with heats on Friday and conclude on Saturday.
The men’s 100m field features 2004 Olympic champion Justin Gatlin and 2000 Olympic gold medallist - and three-time world champion - Maurice Greene, as well as Athens fourth-place finisher Shawn Crawford and Leonard Scott.
Greene and Scott share the fastest American time this year of 10.03sec, while Gatlin posted a wind-aided 9.84 in winning the Prefontaine Classic on June 4.
Hovering over the US sprinters is the newly minted 100m world record of Jamaican Asafa Powell, 9.77sec clocked at Athens on June 14.
The 22-year-old’s mark shaved one-hundredth of a second off the previous record of 9.78sec set by American Tim Montgomery in Paris in September 2002.
Montgomery comes to the US championships battling on the track and off.
He is facing a possible lifetime ban on doping charges stemming from evidence collected in the BALCO criminal investigation.
Montgomery, who has never tested positive for banned drugs, took his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and is expected to learn his fate next month.
In the meantime he has struggled on the track, as has his girlfriend Marion Jones, who will skip the long jump and try to qualify for Helsinki on the track.
Although Jones has faced no formal charges, she too has been tainted by the BALCO scandal and performed below her best in recent meets, as US sprinters Lauryn Williams, Me’Lisa Barber, LaTasha Colander and Allyson Felix have put together strong showings.