The quest to be best will carry Gatlin

EUGENE, Ore. — The smile seems to come as easily to sprinter Justin Gatlin as the speed. He is enjoying the speculation, the anticipation, this mano a mano with Asafa Powell.

He likes the notion that the world is clamoring for the two of them to meet in a 100-meter race for the ages. He is having fun with this idea that nobody on the planet is faster.

"It's an uncanny rush to run fast," Gatlin said after Sunday's race in the Prefontaine Classic. "It's like a tingling feeling. I try not to go out there and think of where my limit is. I try to move my legs and my arms as fast as possible. I know it sounds simple and almost prehistoric in a way, but that's how it is."

On a wet, raw day, a sprinter's worst enemy, Gatlin and Powell, the co-holders of the 100-meter world record of 9.77, ran on the same track, at the same distance.

But because it's only May and because there isn't enough money in Eugene for a match race, Gatlin and Powell ran in separate sections of the 100.

Both won.

"Nothing was settled today," the Jamaican Powell said. "No one really won."

Gatlin stumbled slightly at the start and still won in 9.88. Powell ran 9.93.

"Right now, we're approaching this as trying to help the sport together," Gatlin said. "Instead of carrying grudges, I think this will be a positive thing for track and field."

Sometime this summer Gatlin and Powell will meet on the same track. Maybe in Athens in early July. Maybe in London in late July. Maybe in a big-money race at a Las Vegas casino, the kind of big event in a non-Olympic year that track and field craves.

"I don't know where it will be," Powell said. "I just know that I'm ready to run."

Money, of course, will determine where and how many times they race.

"It's what the world wants to see," Gatlin said. "Carl [Lewis] and Ben Johnson came along and they captured the world's attention and I think me and Asafa can do the same. My job is to run and make as much money as I can and be successful, just like your job as a reporter is to go out and get the best scoop. So I have to make sure I'm not out there running for free.

"It's not being scared of running against each other. It's not ducking anybody. It's a business move ... Las Vegas sounds good. It's the home of betting. The home of thrills. Maybe we can get a two-lane stretch track and just go to it, man to man. And in my heart and my mind I would be the favorite."

Even after running 9.77 and tying the world record earlier this month in Doha, Qatar, Gatlin believes he still has something to prove.

His coach, Trevor Graham, has coached six athletes suspended for doping or steroid use, including Tim Montgomery, who was stripped of his 100-meter world record.

In the age of BALCO, where drugs cast a giant shadow over this sport like the storm clouds rolling over the nearby Coburg Hills, Gatlin believes he can be the voice of a new generation.

He says he can be the cleanest man in track and field, as well as the fastest. He's never failed a steroid test and promises he never will (he did, however, test positive in 2001 for an amphetamine in a prescription medication he'd been taking for 10 years to treat a form of attention deficit disorder and was suspended for two years). He says he can help change people's perceptions of his sport.

"It's hard for a lot of track athletes, especially at this point in time," Gatlin said. "But by showing your face out there and not being scared to face your critics, you put yourself in the fire, basically. I think I'm paving the way for a lot of young sprinters to do it the right way.

"I think I've had to prove myself more than any other competitor, more than any other world-class sprinter there is. There's a lot of critics out there. But I also think that my critics are pushing me to different levels."

Late in the afternoon, the sun finally burst through the clouds. Gatlin and Powell went in different directions. They will chase the world record before they chase each other.

Powell is scheduled to run in Oslo, Norway, on Friday, and Gatlin's next race is in New York on Saturday.

No matter where they are on the globe, they will be linked by their speed desire to be the world's fastest human.

"I'm hungry to go out there and capture that title," Gatlin said, smiling like a kid who can't wait for summer to arrive.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com