The Aviva British Grand Prix takes place at Gateshead International Stadium today, and one of the highlights will be Asafa Powell’s battle with Tyson Gay in the 100m. As Chief Sports Writer Scott Wilson learned yesterday, though, the star of the show will be watching from afar.

THE press conference table at Gateshead International Stadium was flanked by two chairs. There were only two people present, but it should really have been three. When it comes to previewing a men’s 100m race, the identity of the central character is unchanging, whether he is competing at the meeting or not.

Tyson Gay is the secondfastest sprinter of all time.

Faster than Linford Christie, faster than Carl Lewis, faster even than a drugged-up Ben Johnson. In world athletics terms, he is just about as big as they come.

Asafa Powell was the worldrecord holder for almost three years and has won relay gold medals at both the World Championships and Olympic Games. Nobody has run faster than him in the current calendar year.

The pair go head to head in Gateshead this afternoon for the first time since last year’s World Championship final, and with the weather expected to be warm and still, there is every chance that one or the other will run the fastest time ever recorded on British soil.

Yet yesterday, as they sat side by side to preview Britain’s opening meeting of the new-look Diamond League, it was almost as though they were an irrelevance.

They are not Usain Bolt, and after a three-year spell in which the world number one has produced increasingly stupendous performances to claim Olympic and World gold and shatter not one, not two, but three world records, if you are not Usain Bolt, you might as well leave your spikes in the locker.

So while a clutch of the nation’s leading sportswriters had ostensibly descended on Gateshead to speak to Powell and Gay, they had actually travelled to the North-East to speak about Bolt.

It just so happened that Powell and Gay were on hand to add their four-penneth to the debate.

The result was a strange verbal duel in which interviewers and interviewees danced around the major topic without really acknowledging its existence.

Never mind an elephant in the room – this was a superstar in the stadium that nobody wanted to mention by name. Not, however, that it was difficult to fill in the gaps.

What Powell said: “It’s always good to put in a good performance no matter what anyone else is doing, because you’re a professional athlete.

You are out competing and the world is watching. Every time you go out there, you have to perform well. It’s always a motivation to compete and see where you’re at.”

What Powell meant: “Yes, I know Bolt ran 9.82s in Lausanne on Thursday night in his first appearance for almost two months, and I know I’ll have to go some to beat that. But I’m a professional and I’ll be trying my best even if I suspect, deep down, that Bolt’s pretty much unbeatable.”

What Gay said: “I believe Asafa is still the guy to beat, regardless of what anyone else in the world is doing. He’s definitely got my respect. I think Asafa is the man to beat, no matter who might be back on the scene. He had a setback or two last year, but this year he is healthy and that’s the key.”

What Gay meant: “Why does everyone want to talk about Bolt just because he’s had one more good run? Asafa has run just as quickly as him this year, but no one wants to talk about him. Just like no one wanted to talk about me after I ran 9.69s in last year’s World Championship final.”

Rarely can so much have been implied by words that were left unsaid.

It cannot be easy to be so successful, yet live so completely in someone else’s shadow.

In any other era, Powell and Gay would have titles to their name and be lauded as ‘the fastest man in the world’, one of the most evocative monikers in sport.

Instead, they find themselves playing the bridesmaid to an athlete who will surely go down as the greatest of all time. It must be hard to discuss the situation with any degree of equanimity.

To their credit, though, both Powell and Gay eventually settled to the task and began to discuss Bolt by name.

“Bolt ran very well (in Lausanne),” said Powell, who shares the same Jamaican heritage as his rival but has developed through a different training camp. “But I really want all the guys to be in form. I am not happy when other guys are hurt.

“When you’re out there competing, you want everyone to be in tip-top shape. That’s when you see great performances. I don’t want to compete and be excited about running if I’m not taking on the best.”

His sincerity appeared genuine, and there is no reason why it should not be, given Powell’s performances this year.

He clocked a wind-assisted 9.75s in Doha in May, and has fond memories of Gateshead after equalling the world record on his first appearance at the venue in 2006.

When he takes on Bolt for the first time this season in Paris next week, for all of his compatriot’s achievements, the outcome is far from preordained.

Gay’s situation is somewhat different, as he has suffered an injury-hit start to the season and is unlikely to hit peak form until the autumn.

The American will make his first 100m outing of the year this afternoon and is not expected to be pushing Bolt close until 2011.

Last year, he was part of the fastest 100m race of all time as he finished runner-up in Berlin, and while he does not believe Bolt should receive all the credit for transforming the profile of men’s sprinting, he is happy to applaud the role his rival has played.

“Bolt has clearly brought a lot of excitement to the 100m,”

said Gay.

“But it didn’t start there.

Before Bolt stepped on the scene, the 100m record was already getting broken anyway.

“When people are breaking the world record three times in a year, there’s already that excitement there.

“He just took it to another level because of the times he ran.

“If he’d have run 9.73s, there wouldn’t have been so much hype about it. It was just because of the time that there was so much said and written.”

In Berlin, of course, Bolt ran 9.58s to chip more than a tenth of a second off the previous world best.

As a result, he is the star of the show whenever he takes to the track. And as yesterday proved, even when he doesn’t, he remains the performer on everyone’s lips.

Ten To Follow

TYSON GAY (USA – 100m)

THE second fastest man in history with a 9.69 sec best for the distance will compete in his first 100m race of the season at the Aviva British Grand Prix. The three-time World Championship gold medallist and the 100m runner-up in Berlin 2009 will be keen to repeat the victory he took in Gateshead last year.

ASAFA POWELL (JAM – 100m)

THE reigning Commonwealth champion Powell returns to Gateshead International Stadium for the first time since he clocked an outstanding 9.87 sec in 2008, only two years after he equalled the 100m world record time with 9.77 in 2006. Powell is the man on form this season after staying unbeaten for the last nine races and having recorded 9.82 sec – the quickest time of the year – in Rome last month, which compatriot Usain Bolt equalled in Lausanne on Thursday evening.

MARTYN ROONEY (GBR – 400m)

BRITAIN’S number one arrives as one of only three Europeans to have run sub-45 secs this season, following a run of 44.99 secs in both Geneva and then Birmingham, two weekends ago. The Croydon athlete will head to Barcelona looking to challenge his personal best of 44.60 and add his first senior individual major championship medal to the silver he won at the Berlin World Championships as part of the 4x400m quartet.

PHILIPS IDOWU (GBR – Triple Jump)

REIGNING world champion and Britain’s top male athlete will face the world number two Alexis Copello in a thrilling triple jump contest that boasts one of the strongest line ups in the world this year. With a best jump of 17.48m this season, Idowu beat World Indoor champion and France’s inform Teddy Tamgho at the SPAR European Team Championships last month, before retaining his national title at the Aviva European Trials and UK Championships.

MO FARAH (GBR – 5000m)

NOW four years older and more experienced, Farah will be looking to better the silver he won in the 5000m at the last European Championships. This will only be the Londoner’s second 5000m of the season, his first saw him victorious at the SPAR European Team Championships in Bergen last month and that followed setting a British record in the road 10km. The Aviva British Grand Prix will see him take on two-time Olympic medallist Eliud Kipchoge.

LISA DOBRISKEY (GBR – 1500m)

THE reigning 1500m Commonwealth champion added a silver World Championship medal to her athletics CV last year in Berlin. Dobriskey’s European campaign received a timely boost at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Lausanne on Thursday, where she finished fourth in a worldclass field with 4:01.83, which is the fastest time recorded by a European this season.

JENNY MEADOWS (GBR – 800m)

THE winner of the bronze medal at the 2009 Berlin IAAF World Championships and the silver medal at the World Indoor Championships in March, Wigan-born Meadows will try to conquer Gateshead International Stadium after her third place last year. With a best time this season of 1:58.89, Meadows is the second fastest European after Russia’s Mariya Savinova.

JESSICA ENNIS (GBR – 200m and Javelin Throw)

THE heptathlon world champion and pentathlon World Indoor champion is hoping to add European glory to her everincreasing honours list. She will be aiming to improve the personal bests already set in both the long jump and shot this outdoor season, as she continues to fine-tune her performance for Barcelona.

VALERIE VILI (NZL – Shot)

THIS is the first time the Kiwi will compete in Gateshead and she arrives with an impressive honours list. The Commonwealth champion in 2006 won her first world title in 2007 in Osaka. Since then she claimed the Olympic gold in Beijing and defended her world champion status in Berlin last year. Vili arrives at the Gateshead International Stadium to face her great rival, Nadezhda Ostapchuk, who beat her to the World Indoor title last March.

CARMELITA JETER (USA – 100m)

THE American arrived in Gateshead last year with a World Championship bronze medal, but within weeks of the Aviva British Grand Prix she ran the second fastest time in history of 10.64 sec in Shanghai. Now bearing the tag of ‘fastest woman alive’, Jeter will be looking to defend her Aviva British Grand Prix title today, and maintain her 2010 winning streak.

■ Diversity, Britain’s top dance act, will open the Aviva British Grand Prix. The winners of Britain’s Got Talent 2009 will be bringing their own brand of athleticism to the Gateshead International Stadium.

■ Tickets are available by phone on 08000 556 056 or online at www.uka.org.uk . Prices: In tier 2, adults £10, concession £8 and in the Family Zone, £10 for adults and £3 for concessions.