Greene came out this year vowing to amend for a dreadful 2002, but the 28-year-old has been upstaged by unheralded sprinters such as Nigeria's Deji Aliu, who beat him into third in rainy Lausanne on Tuesday and is back to haunt the American here in the second Golden League meeting of the season.

Aliu is knocking on the door of a magical sub-10 second time, having run 10 flat in Greece last month.

Consistency has been hard to find in the short sprint this season - Australia's Patrick Johnson for example will want to prove his world-leading 9.93sec time back in early May was no one-off.

The winner in Oslo last week, Britain's Mark Lewis-Francis, is looking for a second Golden League win and European champion Dwain Chambers could have finally got his season under way after victory over world record holder Tim Montgomery in Glasgow last Sunday.

Montgomery meanwhile has scratched from the meeting after returning home to the United States after his partner, Olympic champion Marion Jones, gave birth to their son.

At just 17, Allyson Felix has been compared to Jones and Europe gets its first look at the fastest woman in the 200 metres this year when she clashes with European champion and home heroine Muriel Hurtis.

Athletes like Felix will be having a foretaste of the Stade de France that is the focus for their entire season - the World Championships which take place on August 23-31.

Haile Gebrselassie knows his heir apparent, Kenenisa Bekele, has been installed as favourite for the 10,000 metres title after two breathtaking performances over 5,000 metres in the space of five days.

Bekele is due to meet the old Ethiopian master in next week's Rome meeting, but 'Gebr' has other young pretenders to worry about in the shape of 19-year-old Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, who was third in Oslo with a new world junior record of 12min 52.61sec. Unlike the 100 metres, the 400 metres hurdles world title already looks to have only one man's name on it: reigning champion Felix Sanchez, who left his rivals trailing by over seven metres at the finish in Lausanne to record a world best for the year of 47.80sec. The man from the Dominican Republic is back to repeat the feat here.

Yamile Aldama will aim to prove again she is the class act in the women's triple jump, but she needs to find a country to take her on in time for next year's Athens Olympics.

The Cuban is divorcing her British husband after he was jailed for 15 years for his part in a massive drugs ring, and that could delay her application for British citizenship.

"I left my country in very sad circumstances and now I have no other option. I am still waiting for an answer from Britain but I would be more than happy to take citizenship in any other country who would be interested," said Aldama.