Elton Tucker, Sports Editor

The eyes of the sporting world will be focused on Osaka, Japan, for what is expected to be nine glorious days of track and field from August 25 to September 2.

Jamaican athletes who have produced several outstanding performances at the championships since the inaugural meet at the famous Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland, in 1983, will be among the many world-class competitors on show. Since 1983, Jamaica has won a total of 56 medals at 10 championships - six gold, 23 silver and 27 bronze.

Twenty-four years ago, Bertland Cameron, just four years out of high school, won the men's 400 metres gold in 45.05 seconds. At the same championships, the great Merlene Ottey took home two medals, a silver in the 200m (22.19) and bronze in the 4x100m with a team which included Lilieth Hodges, Jacqueline Pusey and Juliet Cuthbert.

Ottey went on to get her first gold medal in the sprint relay in 1991 and individual gold over 200m in 1993 in Stuttgart and 1995 in Gothenburg.

This year, Jamaica is poised for perhaps the country's best-ever showing at the World Championships. The tally to beat is the eight medals - one gold, five silver and two bronze - won in 2005.

Based on current form, Jamaica could win as many as 12 medals at the meet. Asafa Powell (100m), Usain Bolt (200m) and the men's 4x100m and 4x400m should be among the medals in men's events. Among the women, Veronica Campbell (100m and 200m), Trecia Smith (triple jump), Delloreen Ennis-London (100m hurdles), Novlene Williams (400m), Melaine Walker (40m hurdles) and the 4x100m and 4x400m relays should medal.

For the first time since the World Championships started, Jamaica will enter the meet with an outdoor world record holder in an event. World 100m record holder Powell stands on the brink of becoming the country's first senior men's 100m gold medallist at a world event.

Powell has dominated the 100m for the past two years and barring injury, it seems that only American Tyson Gay, the fastest man over 100m (9.84) and 200m (19.62) this year can deny the Jamaican mega star the gold in the 100m.

Gay will also stand in the way of 200 metres star Bolt. Bolt hasbeen brilliant this season. He has the experience of reaching the 200m final at the last World Championships and should make his mark this time after he established an outstanding new national record of 19.75 at the National Senior and Junior Championships in late June.

On the women's side, Veronica Campbell will carry the hopes of many Jamaicans on her shoulders. In Helsinki two years ago, Campbell lost the women's 100m gold by a narrow margin (10.93 to 10.95) to American Lauryn Williams. This year, Campbell's 10.89 makes her the fastest women over the distance going into the championships and she will again be the one to beat.

The women's 200m will prove to be a humdinger and Campbell will want to erase the disappointment of two years ago when she finished out of the medals after winning gold at the Olympics in 2004. Among those who can deny her are defending champion Allyson Felix and her fellow American, the Jamaica-born Sanya Richards. Felix is the world leader with 22.18.

A gold at the Pan American Games will have already whetted the appetite of Ennis-London and she will want to improve on the silver she won in Helsinki.

In the 400m hurdles, Walker's 54.14 makes her the fourth-fastest woman in the world over the distance and with a good lane draw in the final, she can surprise.