Jamaican sprint stars race in for party at the Palace

With a £400,000 pot of gold up for grabs, 36 world champions and the fastest man on Earth will be at Crystal Palace for the two-day extravaganza which begins tonight with a £50,000 bonus on offer for any athlete who breaks a world record.

Cool runnings: Asafa Powell, front left, and Usain Bolt, right, arrive via the river Thames, to the O2 arena

Almost 28,000 people will descend on Crystal Palace for an Olympic Games send-off. Powell is ready to use the opportunity to show he is still the man to catch just two weeks before the Olympics open in Beijing.

While there will be no big showdown with Tyson Gay, after the 100m world champion pulled out with injury, Powell is determined that he can recreate the speed which made him the world record holder until the end of May. It was then that Bolt ran 9.72secs in New York to beat the record by 0.02 but Powell wants it back.

'People are making like Asafa is dead, Asafa cannot ran fast again ,' said Powell. 'But I can run faster than I did the last time.

'I am capable of doing anything that I want to. I have one goal in Beijing and that is to get the gold medal. No matter who is there I am going for the gold.'

Powell ran the fastest 100m seen in Britain in 2006 when he equalled his then world-record of 9.77sec in Gateshead but there are no guarantees that he will be racing Bolt in Beijing. Bolt will compete over 200m, his favourite distance, tomorrow and remains undecided what will happen at the Olympics.

'It is up to my coach,' said Bolt. 'Whatever he wants me to do I will listen to.'

Bolt has a personal best of 19.75sec, so the Aviva London Grand Prix could see him clock the fastest time ever for the distance in Britain.

But he and rival Powell agree on one subject.

'It saddens me that people are suspicious when I run a fast time,' said Bolt. 'I know I am clean.'

Powell believes drug cheats should not just be banned from the sport but be sent to prison when they test positive.

'They are pretty much robbing the other athletes,' said Powell.

'If someone comes out and they are taking drugs and they win the gold they are robbing me of my gold medal.'