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Gatlin aims for U.S. sprint record
 Gatlin is targeting Donovan Bailey's 9.84 seconds run. INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana -- Joint world record holder Justin Gatlin takes aim at the fastest 100 meters ever run in the United States at the national championships starting on Thursday. Gatlin, who equaled Asafa Powell's world record of 9.77 seconds last month in Doha, hopes to erase Canadian Donovan Bailey's U.S. all-comers' record of 9.84 seconds. A tilt at the world record could also be possible in Friday's final if conditions are right. Bailey set the U.S. all-comers mark in his then-world record rush to Olympic gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Americans Gatlin and Maurice Greene -- as well as the disgraced Tim Montgomery -- have since run faster, but never in the U.S. Gatlin inched closer to the mark with times of 9.88 and 9.87 seconds in races on wet tracks at Eugene, Oregon, and New York in recent weeks. His main competition should come from world indoor champion Leonard Scott and training partner Shawn Crawford, the 2004 Olympic 200 meters gold medallist. The four-day meeting also features the return of former Olympic sprint queen Marion Jones to the city where she launched her professional career nine years ago. Jones won U.S. titles in the 100 meters and long jump at the 1977 championships in Indianapolis. She went on to become the 1977 and 1979 world 100 meters champion and won five medals -- three of them gold -- at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Her career has slumped since the 2003 birth of her son and scrutiny by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in connection with the BALCO doping scandal. Although accused by BALCO founder Victor Conte of using performance-enhancing drugs, she has never failed a doping test and has vehemently denied taking steroids. Jones began a comeback in Mexico in May and has won three consecutive 100m races. She faces strong fields in both the 100 and 200m. World champion Lauryn Williams, 2003 world gold medallist Torri Edwards and world indoor winner Lisa Barber will race her in the 100 meters. The 200 field includes world champion Allyson Felix, seeking her third straight U.S. title, as well as Edwards, Williams and world 400 silver medallist Sanya Richards. The men's 200 also should be fast with Olympic and world 400 gold medallist Jeremy Wariner, world silver medallist Wallace Spearmon, Crawford and college star Xavier Carter. World-leading performances could also come in the 400 meters, men's shot put and men's and women's hurdles. Chambers chosenEuropean 100 meters champion Dwain Chambers has been included in the British squad for this month's European Cup just 10 days after his competitive comeback from a doping ban.  Chambers will be Britain's sole entry in the 100 meters. Chambers clocked 10.07 in Gateshead on June 11, finishing third to joint-world record holder Asafa Powell, to become the fastest European this year. He was named as the sole British man in the 100 meters on Wednesday. The 28-year-old's two-year ban for a positive test for the designer steroid THG (tetrahydrogestinone) ended last November but he was not cleared to compete by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) until June 9 after reaching an agreement to repay prize and appearance money. Aside from the ban, Chambers and the rest of the British quartet were stripped of the 4x100 meters silver medal they won at the 2003 world championships. Chambers has since admitted in an interview with the BBC to taking THG for 18 months before he tested positive last August and so could lose the European 100 and relay golds he won in 2002. THG was the steroid at the center of the BALCO case in the U.S. The drug was undetectable until leading athletics coach Trevor Graham anonymously sent a syringe of the substance to the U.S Anti-doping agency. The European Cup takes place in Malaga from June 28 to 29. 
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