International Capsules: Gatlin gets first real test of comeback

In Tuesday's Palio della Quercia meet, the American will face three runners who have beaten the 10-second mark this season: Johan Blake (9.89) and Mario Forsythe (9.95) of Jamaica and Ryan Bailey (9.88) of the United States.

Bailey and Forsythe set their times in Sunday's Rieti Grand Prix.

Gatlin has posted victories at three minor meets in Estonia and Finland since being cleared to compete again, although his fastest time was 10.17.

"When you have a race like this here, where you have guys coming off running 9.8s and keep having season's bests after every race you don't really look for a time, you just try to go out there and compete with them and the time will come," Gatlin said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday. "I don't want to bog my mind down with too much. I'm just going to worry about technically running a good race and giving some good competition."

Gatlin won gold in the 100 at the 2004 Athens Olympics in 9.85, then tested positive in April 2006 for excessive testosterone. He used to command expensive appearance fees, but meet director Luigo D'Onofrio said the only money Gatlin will take home here is a small prize if he finishes in the top six, just like most other entrants.

The first-place prize is $2,285.

"We wouldn't have accepted anything else," D'Onofrio said. "If he wants to race under the same conditions of everyone else — just for the prize money — I have no problem. Gatlin is a great person. Of course he did something he shouldn't have, but he paid the price for it."

Gatlin is just happy to have the chance to earning any money.

"Well, when you go from four years of not making anything to making something here and there, it's a good thing," he said. "The faster you run and the better you compete, the more doors open — that's how track and field is."

Gatlin now trains under speed technician Loren Seagrave, who once worked with former world record-holder Donovan Bailey, and Seagrave's associate Rana Rieder.

During his prime, he was coached by Trevor Graham, who was given a lifetime ban by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for his role in helping athletes obtain performance-enhancing drugs. Graham also coached Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, who were both tainted by doping.

"It's been a tough transition," Gatlin said. "My running style is a little different. ... I still have some aches and pains in my quads and things like that, but hopefully this is just a prelude for me to go out there and run even better next year."

After Rovereto, Gatlin will hop on a train to a meet in Padua.

These minor meets are quite a change from the jet-set circuit where Gatlin used to compete — in all the major cities.

"I feel like I'm backpacking through Europe," he said. "It makes me feel like a rookie all over again, which is not a bad thing. I think anybody would give an arm or a leg to start their career over again."

The long-term goals for Gatlin start with next year's U.S. trials, where he hopes to qualify for the American team at the world championships in Daegu, South Korea. Then, of course, there's the 2012 London Olympics.

"I think I've always been a championship-style runner," he said. "I think that coming back at this point in time has given me a running start into these championship years to come."

Semenya unfazed by gender questions

Having been cleared to run following an 11-month dispute over her gender, the 800-meter world champion has been cheered at her four races since returning. But Canadian opponent Diane Cummins openly questioned Semenya's gender at a meet in Berlin earlier this month, just like Elisa Cusma Piccione of Italy did at last year's world championships.

"My coach used to tell me that opponents didn't exist. So it doesn't matter who supports you or doesn't support you," Semenya said Monday while preparing for a meet in northern Italy. "The important thing is the audience, the people who cheer for you. The friendships start outside the races, because during the races everyone is doing their own thing."

Semenya could face many more competitors soon if she fulfills her wish of adding the 1,500 meters in time for the 2012 London Olympics.

"It's not a problem going for two events," the South African said, recalling that she put up decent 1,500 times in junior meets. "It depends how strong you are, because you go through (qualifying) rounds."

Those qualifying rounds require a great deal of strategy, and too much planning was just what backfired for Semenya when she finished third in the Diamond League meet in Brussels on Friday. Semenya hung back for most of the race and by the time she started charging it was too late.

"Now all the other coaches are aware that people are using this system of coming from behind," Semenya's coach, Michael Seme, said. "Now we're going to change. We'll (stay) with them — not at the back, not leading — just in the (pack), then we'll try to push more in the last 200 meters."

Despite the loss in Brussels, Semenya still clocked 1 minute, 59.66 seconds — her fastest time since she's returned to the track.

She's aiming for 1:58 in Tuesday's Palio della Quercia meet here and 1:57 at the Commonwealth Games in October.

Semenya ran a personal best 1:55.45 when she won the gold medal at last year's world championships in Berlin, prompting many observes to declare it was only a matter of time before she broke Jarmila Kratochvilova's world record of 1:53.28 set in 1983.

The 11-month layoff has put off talk of world records.

"We don't even think about that," Seme said. "That's for 2012 and the Olympic Games. It's better to break the world record then — when everybody is watching."

While she's just 19 now, Semenya has already thought about what she might do after running — such as becoming a boxer.

"I can do boxing when I'm 30 years old," she said. "Because in athletics you can't run forever."

-- Andrew Dampf

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SYDNEY (AP) — Cathy Freeman will once again light the cauldron when Sydney celebrates the 10th anniversary of an Olympics which the then IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch called the "best Olympic Games ever."

On Sept. 15, 2000, Freeman was dressed in a full-length white body suit to light the flame atop the Olympic stadium.

Freeman, who won the 400-meter gold medal later in the Olympics, will be joined by Paralympic wheelchair gold medalist Louise Sauvage to light the flame — this time not at the stadium but about 150 meters away.

Organizers of the Sept. 15 event hope many of the 47,000 volunteers from a decade earlier will attend. There will be a free barbecue, concert and a dinner hosted by Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates.

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