EUGENE, Oregon (AFP) — World champion Tyson Gay led 100-meter finalists with a 9.85-second run at the US Olympic Track and Field Trials, taking his heat with ease Sunday to move one race from the Beijing Olympics.
Gay, rivaling world record-holder Usian Bolt and Asafa Powell of Jamaica for the title of world's fastest man, will face seven foes in the 100m final later Sunday after beating Walter Dix by .08 in a wind-aided (2.2m/sec) semi-final.
"I was a little fatigued, but it felt pretty good," Gay said.
Gay will start the final in lane four to the right of Dix and the left of Darvis Patton, who won the other semi-final heat in 10.04 in a wind of 0.5m/s.
"I felt pretty good," Patton said. "One more to go."
Reaching the final means Gay is eligible to run on US Olympic relays at Beijing, but his goal is to complete a 100-200 golden double in China as he did in last year's world championships at Osaka.
Gay moved to third on the all-time 100m list with a 9.77 quarter-final run Saturday after a qualifying blunder, slowing 20 meters from the finish and allowing rivals to catch him before the line but advancing in fourth place.
But the American-record effort showed he was a serious threat to break the world record of 9.72 set by Usian Bolt on May 31 at New York, who beat the old mark of 9.74 held by his Jamaican compatriot, Asafa Powell.
Bolt and Powell secured their Beijing berths Saturday at the Jamaican trials while Gay must still reach the podium in Sunday's final to set up the sprint showdown at the Bird's Nest in August.
Other tickets to Beijing will be booked for US Olympic medal contenders later Sunday.
World pole vault champion Brad Walker tries to reach his first Olympics with 2004 Olympic champion Tim Mack, 35, and Athens runner-up Toby Stevenson among his top rivals.
Reigning Olympic and two-time world long jump champion Dwight Phillips, 30, bids for a chance to defend his crown.
World 400 hurdles champion Kerron Clement, with 2008's world-best 47.79, tries to qualify for Beijing against 2005 world champion Bershawn Jackson and 2000 Olympic champion Angelo Taylor.
Sheena Tosta, fourth in the women's 400 hurdles at the 2004 Olympics, vies for another medal chance against reigning US champion Tiffany Ross-Williams and Lashinda Demus, the 2005 world runner-up who gave birth to twin boys last June.
Reigning Olympic and two-time world 400m champion Jeremy Wariner opens his Olympic bid in quarter-final heats with an eye toward Michael Johnson's world record of 43.18 from 1999.
Jamaican-born Sanya Richards, who had not lost a 400 race in nearly two years before placing fourth at last year's US championship to miss the world championships, begins her run at Beijing in the 400 quarter-finals.
Bryan Clay, the 2004 Olympic decathlon runner-up and 2005 world champion, had a disappointing 7.39m leap in the long jump but bounced back with a 2.08m high jump to lead after four events with 3,587 points, six ahead of Tom Pappas.
Pappas, the 2003 world decathlon champion, had a career-best 17.26m in the shot put to lead early. Pappas was fifth at the 2000 Olympics but suffered a left foot injury in the pole vault at the 2004 Games.
Kenyan-born Bernard Lagat, the 1,500 and 5,000 world champion seeking the same double at Beijing, runs the 5,000 final Monday while Shalane Flanagan, the 10,000 winner, will continue her Olympic double bid in the women's 5,000 semis.
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