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Doha: America’s Olympic champion Justin Gatlin will run his second 100-meter sprint of the season here with an aim to smash the world record. The current women’s 200m champion Allyson Felix, also of the US, along with India’s long jump hope Anju Bobby George are also in the fray among other top notch athletes in the Qatar IAAF World Super Tour that is to be held here at the Qatar Sports Club today.

Over 180 top class athletes have assembled here for this one day event. Twenty of these athletes have world records to their credit.

Gatlin, ran in 9.95 seconds at Osaka, the previous week, and is keen to run 100 metres in 9.75 seconds and break the world record of 9.77 held by Jamaican Asafa Powell. But in the previous two appearances here Gatlin has failed but this time he feels that he can do it.

“I’ll break the jinx this year. Hopefully this time it will be mine,” said Gatlin yesterday.

“I truly believe I can break the world record this year and why not do it here?” said Gatlin, who ran an impressive 9.95sec in Osaka last weekend.

“This is a fast track and judging on how I feel and the way I ran in Japan the record could well be on.”

Gatlin was happy with his season’s first meet performance in Osaka. “Japan was a great start. Hopefully I can build up here on and set the tone,” he added.

On his competition with Powell in Gateshead next month, Gatlin said, “There are competitions. No worries on that front. I just want to be technically sound and want to win fast,” he said.

He has expressed confidence that he can set the world record and top last year’s performance when he became just the second man ever to win both the 100m and 200m at the same World Championships, held in Helsinki.

The women’s sprint arena is not as high profile with the fall from grace of Marion Jones, her successors in 100m world champion Lauryn Williams and 200m world champion Allison Felix both appear here.

Felix, the only teen to claim a world sprint crown with the 200m in Helsinki, will run the 200m, where she will line up against Stephanie Durst and Brianna Glenn, both from USA.

Having targeted the Asian Games and the World Cup, Anju begins her campaign with the hopes that Qatar would provide her the platform for the forthcoming Asian Games and World Cup. The Commonwealth Games and the World Championship proved disastrous for Anju, but having taken a three week break has rejuvenated the Indian long jumper who is eager to make her mark and regain her 2004 form.

“The previous year is the past now. I am looking forward to do well here and be ready for the Asian Games as well as the World Cup. The three week break in Kerala from training and competition has been good and I hope to do better than 6.54 in Doha,” Anju had said on her arrival in Doha.

Being a high level meet with 20 world record holders competing in it, Qatar has 18 athletes who will be rubbing shoulders with the world’s top athletes. It may be difficult for the local athletes to make a mark but the experience should help in the long run.

The men’s 3,000m which features a hugely-talented Kenyan trio appears to be thrilling. The 2003 men’s world 5,000m champion Eliud Kipchoge, who that day saw off the twin challenges of Hicham El Guerrouj and Kenenisa Bekele, will take on recently-crowned Commonwealth 5,000m champion Augustine Choge and the reigning world champion at 5000m, the experienced Benjamin Limo.

Choge may well be the rising force in the event as he showed remarkable maturity for a teenager in quelling the challenge of Australian hope Craig Mottram in the Commonwealth final in Melbourne, indeed the 19-year-old claimed the roars of support of 79,000 Australians for the Aussie helped him.

Limo too can never be discounted, he took bronze in the 5,000m in Melbourne, and is in far better shape than he was at the Commonwealth Games, having then gone on to finish fourth in the 4km race at the world cross country championships in Japan.