Jamaica's Asafa Powell, the current world record holder for the 100m, Nigeria's Aliu Deji (left) and Jacey Harper (right) of Trinidad and Tobago compete in the men's 100m heat at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne last year. Powell is focusing on winning the 100m title at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, later this year. - reuters

WALNUT, California (Reuters):

A TANTALISING maiden world title rather than another world record is Asafa Powell's priority this year, according to the Jamaican sprinter's manager.

Powell, who twice equalled his 100 metres world record of 9.77 seconds last season, has set his sights on claiming a gold medal at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan.

"It's pretty undeniable right now he's the top sprinter in the world," Paul Doyle told Reuters after Powell pulled out of his first race of the year on Sunday because of a knee injury.

"But not having a World Championship medal or an Olympic medal makes him extra hungry.

"Osaka is definitely his number one goal of the year but, in addition to that, he just wants to continue doing what he was doing last year and that's win every race.

"No times as a target. If the world record comes, the world record comes, and that's great. But he really just wants to win every race that he lines up for in 2007."

Powell, who set the 100 world record in Athens in 2005, was named IAAF male athlete of the year and Track & Field News magazine's male athlete of the year for 2006.

He tied his world record at Gateshead, England in June and equalled it again in Zurich in a million-dollar season in which the Jamaican ran under 10 seconds a record 12 times.

Powell, 24, will head to Osaka for the August 25-September 2 World Champion-ships undisputed as the number one men's sprinter, even though he has never won a world or Olympic medal.

CAREFUL BUILD-UP

His build-up to Japan is being carefully planned the next few weeks are a little tentative following his withdrawal from the men's 4x100 metres relay at the Hilmer Lodge Stadium on Sunday.

"We are still working on his schedule," Doyle said. "The plan is for him to do the Penn Relays in two weeks' time and then, hopefully, we will be opening up in Kingston, Jamaica on the fifth of May.

"From there, the only one we have definitely figured out is Eugene, Oregon for the Prefontaine Classic. And then, hopefully, we will come to a deal with Oslo too. Those are the events we are targeting right up to the Jamaican championships."

Doyle said Powell would race no more than five times after the Jamaican championships in his lead-in to Osaka.

"We will probably end up doing just four races with the last one most likely being Stockholm on the seventh of August which is still a few weeks away from the world's," he added.

"We will probably get to Japan on the 10th of August, two weeks before."

Powell's European schedule would also be tweaked, Doyle said.

"We are not going to do exclusively the Golden Leagues this year," he added. "We are also considering a lot of the super grand prix meets and maybe even some small meets."