INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Justin Gatlin is thinking world record as always and Marion Jones will be racing for redemption when the U.S. track and field championships open a four-day run Thursday.

Halfway between Olympics, and with no world championships this year, Gatlin’s sprint rivalry with Jamaican Asafa Powell is keeping the often-overlooked sport in the headlines.

So is Jones, who will face fierce competition in Indianapolis from reigning world 100-meter champion Lauryn Williams and others.

Jones also is entered in the 200, where the favorite is world champion and Olympic silver medalist Allyson Felix.

For subplots, world decathlon champion Bryan Clay has the American and world records in his sights, Olympic and world 400 champion Jeremy Wariner is limiting himself to the 200 and Sanya Richards hopes for a 200-400 double.

Gatlin, reigning Olympic and world 100 champion, will race for the first time since Powell again tied the world record they share with a 9.77-second run June 11 in Gateshead, England.

“What do I think about Asafa?” Gatlin said, repeating a questioner Wednesday. “I think I’ve been asked that question too much.”

For the first time since his record-tying run in Doha, Qatar, Gatlin – who has run 9.88 or faster four times this season – should have good weather this week at Carroll Stadium near downtown Indianapolis.

“This year, whenever I step on the track, I’m going out there to run a great time,” he said. “My goal last year was to be a world champion, my goal the year before that was to be Olympic champion. I’m going to strive for my goals, and I’m going to go out there and make sure I put the world record out of reach by the time I retire.”

The USA Track & Field news conference Wednesday was a showcase of the sport’s young stars – Gatlin, Williams, Felix, Clay, Wariner, Richards and hurdler Ginnie Powell, who broke the collegiate 100-meter hurdle record two weeks ago at the NCAA championships, then signed a contract with Nike.

Jones was nowhere to be found. USA track officials prefer the attention go to the youngsters.

But Jones is back, and is scheduled to be in the field for the 100 preliminaries Thursday.

The 30-year-old Jones is a 13-time U.S. champion – four times in the 100, five in the 200 and four in the long jump.

At Sydney in 2000, she won a record five Olympic track medals – three of them gold.

But she has been dogged by doping suspicions in recent years, allegations she vehemently denies. She has split with boyfriend Tim Montgomery, the former world 100 record holder who retired from the sport after being banned for two years for using steroids and other performance enhancers.

He never tested positive but was suspended based on evidence gathered in the criminal probe of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.

Jones was hampered by injury last season. But she has twice run 11.06 in the 100 this season, the fourth-fastest time in the world this year.

Among Americans, only Felix’s 11.04 is faster, and Felix isn’t running the 100 this week.

“I think it only makes things more interesting,” Felix said of Jones’ presence. “I think people want to see great competitors, and I think Marion coming back has added to that.”

Without Jones, the United States won 25 medals at last year’s world championships in Helsinki, Finland, including a record 14 gold. One of the winners was Williams, who has yet to find her form this year.

The diminutive sprinter was battling an upper respiratory infection when she was beaten badly by Jones and three others in New York City on June 3. She said she is feeling much better.

Williams, for one, has grown weary of being asked so often about Jones.

“I answer it to the best of my ability and I move on,” she said, “because you get to a point where you want it – not in a cocky way – but about you. You want someone to ask you “What’s going on with you?’ You know, “What’s going with Lauryn?’ Not what’s going on with someone I’ve not seen and I don’t know what their situation is.”

Besides Williams, Jones’ rivals in the wide-open 100 include Torri Edwards and Me’Lisa Barber. Edwards was recently granted early release from a two-year suspension she was given for inadvertently ingesting a stimulant that has subsequently been dropped from the banned list.

Edwards won the 100 and 200 title in 2003 and Barber is the defending U.S. 100 champion. Both have run 11.06 this year.

Clay won the Hypo Meeting in Austria in May with 8,677 points despite rainy, windy and cold conditions. His personal best is 8,820 in his silver medal performance at the Athens Olympics. Dan O’Brien holds the American record of 8,891 points, set in 1992. The world mark of 9,026 points was set by Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic five years ago.

Wariner is skipping the 400 this week because its an off year for the Olympics and worlds. He is honing in on the 200 as part of his plan for a 200-400 double – matching the feat of his mentor Michael Johnson – at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, or possibly the world championships next year in Osaka, Japan.

A 200-400 double is also the goal of Richards, who like Wariner is coached by 400-meter guru Clyde Hart. Richards hinted she wasn’t positive she’d compete in the 200 this week but hoped to do so if her 400 race goes well. She also was talking records.

Richards has the world’s two fastest times in the 400 this year – 49.82 and 49.89.

AP-ES-06-21-06 1803EDT