Campbell … there's a missing puzzle that I need to solve.

OSAKA, Japan (CMC):

Jamaican sprint ace Veronica Campbell has high hopes as she embarks on a sprint-double bid this weekend at the 11th IAAF World Track and Field Championship.

Campbell, the reigning Olympic 200-metre champion, is embracing the meet as an opportunity to land gold at one of the few events that she is yet to earn the top spot on the medal podium.

"There's a missing puzzle that I need to solve. So this is very important to me," said Campbell, who collected IAAF World Youth and World Junior Championship gold medals in her rise to the top of women's world sprinting.

Two years ago in Helsinki, Campbell was edged by just .02 seconds in the 100 metres to take the silver, but finished fourth and out of the medals in the 200.

She will begin competition in the early rounds of the 100 metres tomorrow.

For Campbell, comparison to her pre-Olympic form in 2004 gives a promising indicator.

"Before the Olympics, I was No.1 in the 200 metres and I went on and won the 200 metres. Now I'm No.1 in the 100 metres and we'll have to wait and see what happens," added the modest 25-year-old.

Besides her world-leading 10.89 from the Jamaican championships in June, Campbell has also produced 10.91 and 10.93 clockings, more sub-11s than any other woman this season.

In the 200, she has clocked 22.39 this season, but has raced in just three competitions over the distance since late June.

Over the 200 metres, she will face defending champion Allyson Felix and another American, the 400-metre standout Sanya Richards.

But she is mentally targeting the short sprint first, since she is not tackling 200-metre competition until next week.

"At this point I'm just focusing on the 100 metres and taking it one step at a time. And after the 100 is finished, I'll put my focus on the 200 metres," Campbell said.

When competition begun Saturday, last night Caribbean time, the preliminaries of the men's 100 metres took centre stage.

Major Showdown

There is a major showdown there between world record holder Asafa Powell and American Tyson Gay, the world's fastest man this year.

Like Campbell, Gay is bidding for the sprint double and his clash with Powell in the 100 is probably the most eagerly anticipated duel of the championship.

"It's what he's been waiting for, it's what I've been waiting for," Gay said this week.

This will be their first clash this year.

"I think the most important thing was that we both wanted to make sure we were 100 per cent injury-free before the opportunity (to race) came," Gay added.

"He (Powell) has been undefeated for over a year now and I've been undefeated this year, so I really feel it was the right thing to do. I really feel confident coming into this race," said Gay.

In the men's first round, Powell started in heat six against Trinidad and Tobago's Junior Pan American Championship gold medallist Keston Bledman and Montserrat's Odingo Gordon. Gay raced in heat one with the St. Kitts and Nevis 2003 world champion Kim Collins.

Rising Bahamian star Derrick Atkins and Antiguan Pan Am Games 200-metre champion Brendan Christian met in heat two.

Trinidad and Tobago's Richard Thompson was in heat four while his teammate Marc Burns was in the eighth and final heat with Pan Am Games champion Churandy Martina.

Powell's Jamaican teammates Clement Campbell and Nesta Carter ran in heats five and seven, respectively.

Also in action on the opening day were Guyana's Marian Burnett and Jamaican Kenia Sinclair in the women's 800-metre preliminaries, and Jamaican Commonwealth Games silver medallist Dorian Scott in the men's shot put preliminaries.