The world’s leading athletes will use this Friday’s Norwich Union Grand Prix at Crystal Palace as the start of their warm-up for the World Championships in Osaka later in the month.

Tyson Gay, the fastest man on the planet, will take on British hopes for gold in Japan, Marlon Devonish and Craig Pickering, in a thrilling 100m that will include Olympic silver medallist Francis Obikwelu.

Gay’s sights will be set firmly on breaking the World Record while a host of other international stars will also be competing.

Carolina Kluft, regarded by many as the world’s greatest athlete, will fine-tune her preparations for the World Championships later in the month with by competing in a world-class 200m race.

The Swede lines up against reigning Olympic champion over the distance, Veronica Campbell, as well as last year’s European gold medallist Kim Gevaert of Belgium.

Olympic 400m champion Jeremy Wariner will also be using the event, shown live on BBC TV, as an important step towards gold in Osaka.

With places in the GB&NI team for Osaka still up grabs, home grown talent like Mark Lewis-Francis in the short sprint, Becky Lynn in the 800m and Tim Benjamin in the 400m will all also be competing in London to ensure a seat on the plane for Japan.

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