As always, there are many exciting races to watch for at the Relays this weekend, but the centerpiece once again promises to be the made-for-TV "USA vs. the World" series.
For the third straight year, this event -- which features USA "Red" and "Blue" sprint relay teams squaring off against loaded teams from Jamaica, Canada, Poland and elsewhere -- will be broadcast on tape-delay to a national television audience on ESPN2 on Saturday from 6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The event is made up of the Men's and Women's Olympic Development 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400 meter relays.
Relay lineups will be shored up on Saturday, but several high-profile athletes have been included the pool as potential runners at the Relays.
In the men's 4x100, Maurice Greene, Jon Drummond, Tim Harden, Terrance Trammel, Bernard Williams and Tim Montgomery have been announced, among others, as possibilities for Team USA.
On the women's side, Inger Miller and Gail Devers stand out in a pool of candidates for Team USA.
The pools for Team USA in the 4x200 are pretty-much similar to the 4x100 ones.
At least one high-profile team is already set, though. The USA women's 4x400 team, which took home the gold at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, will compete on Saturday.
Anchored by Marion Jones, the team features LaTasha Colander-Richardson, Monique Hennagan and Jearl Miles-Clark. Three-fourths of the team won this event at last year's Relays. That squad, which had Michelle Collins instead of Miles-Clark, also set the Relays Open record with a time of 3:21.34.
With the announcements of the pools for the 4x100 and 4x200 meter relays, it does not appear that Jones, who, in 2000, also anchored the Relays open record-holding squads on the 4x100 and 4x200, will be competing in either of the other two races.
The women's squad will be challenged by a formidable Jamaican team. Sandie Richards, Debbie Ann Parris and Catherine Scott -- three-fourths of the gold-medal-winning squad from the 2001 World Championships -- will line up to try to take the title from the U.S., which has claimed it two years in a row.
On the men's side, Angelo Taylor, Antonio Pettigrew and Alvin Harrison -- three-fourths of the U.S. 2000 Olympic 4x400 gold-medal team -- will be in Team USA's 4x400 pool on Saturday.
Pettigrew and Taylor, along with anchor Michael Johnson, set the Relays open record in 2000 with a time of 2:56.60.
The Jamaicans will also give America's men a run for their money. Each team member ran at either the 2000 Olympic squad or the 2001 World Championship team. The Jamaicans took bronze at each event.
While these lineups are by no means set in stone, at least one guy who should know was confident in Team USA's ability to hold up against the world competition.
"The talent is great," world-record holder Maurice Greene said. "There shouldn't be a relay race that the U.S. loses for a long time."
While Greene couldn't say whether or not he'd be running this weekend, Team USA fans hope that he will.
Last year, with Greene at the anchor and Jon Drummond leading off, the "USA Blue" team set the Penn Relays open record in the 4x100 with a time of 0:38.03.
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