Next round at Hayward.

Byline: Bob Rodman The Register-Guard

What was bad news for sprinter Justin Gatlin on Wednesday will apparently be good news, to a degree, for spectators at the Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field.

Less than 12 hours after the International Association of Athletics Federations determined that a timing error last week had incorrectly given Gatlin sole possession of the world record at 100 meters - pending ratification, he's now merely tied with Jamaica's Asafa Powell at 9.77 seconds - Pre Classic meet director Tom Jordan said Gatlin and Powell will both run the 100 meters during the Pre Classic on May 28.

However, they won't run at the same time, but in separate sections of the 100, with the clockings from the two races combined to determine an overall winner.

"Ideally, you would like to have them in the same race," Jordan said, "but that is not going to happen. This, however, is the next best thing. We'll get to see them at their specialty and running for the same money."

Gatlin and Powell are already scheduled to go head-to-head in Europe next month.

"There is too much money on the line in Europe to in effect have them run for free at the Prefontaine Classic," Jordan said.

"We're talking about a confrontation between co-world record-holders, and as much as we would like to see it happen here, there simply is not the $200,000 or $300,000 available to make it happen."

Gatlin appeared to have lowered the world record to 9.76 seconds at the Qatar Grand Prix meet in Doha last Friday. However, IAAF officials were subsequently informed by Tissot Timing that Gatlin's time was recorded at 9.766 and should have been rounded up to 9.77.

The IAAF uses times recorded to hundredths of a second, with figures always rounded up.

"We're very disappointed for Justin, but we think he's got the talent to get the record again," IAAF spokesman Nick Davies told The Associated Press. "It's better to have an honest result."

Davies also said he believed that this is the first time a world record has been taken away days later because of a timing adjustment.

Powell ran 9.77 in Athens, Greece, on June 14, 2005.

Gatlin responded to the news by saying, in a statement released by USA Track & Field, that "it is very disappointing to me that it has taken five days to determine the official time of a race with this significance.

"I remain confident that I am the world's fastest man and I look forward to proving it once again. My parents raised me to be a good sport, but I don't want to share the world record."

Wednesday, Jordan responded to the news of the shared world record by creating a second section for the 100 that would include Powell - originally scheduled to run the 200 here - and seven other runners who will be added to the 100 field. Start lists for the two sections - with Gatlin in one and Powell in the other - will be determined by seeding. It's a method often used in European meets.

Gatlin and Powell will go head-to-head on the clock. Results from the two sections will be ranked and the prize money doled out accordingly - $5,000 to the winner, $3,000 to the runner-up and so on.

The start list for the initial 100 scheduled for the Pre meet included Gatlin, Shawn Crawford - who has the Pre Classic meet and Hayward Field record of 9.88 that he set in 2004 - Leonard Scott, Michael Frater of Jamaica, Francis Obikwelu of Portugal, Marc Burns of Trinidad and Jason Smoots.

"We have a waiting list to fill up the second race," Jordan said. "It won't be a problem."

The difficulty of getting the two sprint superstars in a single 100-meter race appears to be a glowing example of supply and demand.

"A well-deserved race with me and Asafa is in order with a well-deserved price," Gatlin told Dick Patrick of USA Today earlier this week. "Track and field is a great sport, but it's also a business."

Renaldo Nehemiah, Gatlin's agent, said it was a "wait-and-see" situation. "At the beginning of the year, we knew we were obligated to run the 100 meters at the Prefontaine.

"We assumed that we would be facing Asafa whether we wanted to or not. Then Asafa decided he did not want to run the 100 and they created a 200 for him."

People can change their minds, said Nehemiah, the former world record-holder for the 110 hurdles, "but Justin does not run away from anybody."

Gatlin and Powell are not scheduled to compete in the same 100 until June 11 at a Grand Prix meet in Gateshead, England.

Powell's time last year broke the record of 9.79 set by Maurice Greene in June 1999. Tim Montgomery's mark of 9.78, set in Paris in 2002, was erased when he was suspended for two years based on information uncovered in the BALCO doping scandal.

Gatlin, the reigning Olympic and World Champion gold medalist in the 100, and Powell battled in the 100-meter race at the Pre meet last year.

In a photo finish, Gatlin got the win and both were timed in a wind-aided 9.84, tying for the second-fastest wind-aided 100 in Pre history. Maurice Greene ran a wind-aided 9.79 in 1998.

"But there was not the whirlwind surrounding that race like there is now," Jordan said. And apparently that wind still is blowing.

Nehemiah has requested that the IAAF review Powell's world record, alleging that Powell's time "showed 9.78. It was rounded down to 9.77," he told Reuters. "I want to ensure the same sensitivity was attributed to that record, as well."

CAPTION(S):

Justin Gatlin fell into a tie for the 100 record after a rounding error. The Associated Press Asafa Powell was originally supposed to run the 200 meters.