Asafa Powell ... to test injured knee in 200m today in Oregon.- File

EUGENE, Oregon (Reuters):

JAMAICAN 100 metres world record holder Asafa Powell will be hoping to continue his rehabilitation from a knee injury when he competes in the 200 metres at the Prefontaine Classic grand prix today.

"We wanted to get in a couple of runs," Powell's agent, Paul Doyle, said.

"When Asafa had the injury (tendonitis of the knee), he missed three weeks' training.

"He started building his base again with longer runs and was feeling stronger, so we decided to run the 200."

To run entire season

Powell, who clocked 9.97 seconds at Belgrade, Serbia, on May 29 in his first 100m race since picking up the injury, also announced that he would run the entire six-meeting Golden League season, beginning in Oslo on June 15.

In Eugene, the Jamaican faces a high-quality field that includes a quartet of world-class Americans - Olympic champion Shawn Crawford, Xavier Carter, Wallace Spearmon and Olympic 400m champion Jeremy Wariner.

Nearly a dozen athletes ranked number one in the world last year are expected to compete in the meeting named after the late American distance runner Steve Prefontaine.

They include 110m hurdles world record holder Liu Xiang of China and International Amateur Athletics Federation women's Athlete of the Year Sanya Richards.

Liu takes on Americans Dominique Arnold and Allen Johnson and 2005 world champion Ladji Doucoure of France.

Jamaica-born American Richards makes her outdoor debut at 400m.

The mile features Kenyan world number one Alex Kipchirchir, Kenyan-born American Bernard Lagat and six others who have run three minutes, 50 seconds or quicker.

Ethiopian 5,000 and 10,000m world record holder Kenenisa Bekele withdrew from the competition on Friday, citing lack of fitness.

He was scheduled to make his U.S. outdoor debut in the infrequently contested two-mile run.

Younger brother Tariku Bekele, U.S. two-mile record holder Alan Webb, Australian Craig Mottram and world cross country champion Zersenay Tadesse of Eritrea remain in the field.