RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – Three-times 200 metres winner Allyson Felix is among eight defending champions named in a powerful 129-member U.S. world championships team announced by USA Track & Field (USATF) on Wednesday.

The versatile Felix will attempt to become the first woman to win gold medals at both 200 and 400 metres in a world championship during the Aug. 27-Sept 4 competition in Daegu, South Korea.

“I think it is going to be extremely difficult but I am excited to challenge myself,” Felix told Reuters in a recent interview.

She also hopes to run on both the 4×100 and 4×400 metres relays, where she won gold in 2007.

One of her chief rivals in the 400 will be defending world champion Sanya Richards-Ross, who on Saturday ran the year’s second fastest time.

Olympic and world men’s 400 metres champion LaShawn Merritt, who recently completed a 21-month doping suspension, also returns.

Five other 2009 world champions will be back for the Americans — 400 metres hurdler Kerron Clement, shot putter Christian Cantwell, decathlete Trey Hardee, and long jumpers Dwight Phillips and Brittney Reese.

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – The National Football League (NFL) expects to have its new human growth hormone (HGH) testing program in operation by the first game of the season, a key league official said on Tuesday.

Players would be subject to multiple tests year-round without notice under the program, which is being fine-tuned in talks between the league and players union, Adolpho Birch, NFL senior vice president of law and labor policy who will oversee the program, told a teleconference.

League owners and players agreed to the testing as part of the NFL’s new collective bargaining agreement.

It would make the league the first major U.S. professional sport to use blood testing for HGH.

“There is every possibility it will be implemented by the first game of this season because that is what the parties have committed to,” Birch said.

The league opens its regular season on September 8. Pre-season contests start on Thursday.

“We have a strong confidence that the testing program, as we have designed it, will sufficiently deter use, but also has a reasonable opportunity to detect the use of those who choose to do it,” Birch said.

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – Former Olympic and world 400 meters champion Jeremy Wariner will miss this month’s world championships with a foot injury, his agent said on Tuesday.

Wariner, a three-time 400 meters global champion and a key player in the United States’ Olympic and world 4×400 meters relay victories, tore a ligament in the second toe of his left foot while training in July, his agent Deon Minor told Reuters.

“Jeremy said he felt a pop while he was training,” Minor said in a telephone interview. “Then it was like he could not even work out.”

The injury will not require surgery, but recovery time of eight to 12 weeks will be needed, Minor said.

Wariner, 27, had hoped to compete in both the 400 and 4×400 relay at the August 27-September 4 world championships in Daegu, South Korea.

“He really wanted to get back out there because it has been a tough year,” Minor said of the small injuries that have plagued Wariner.

The world’s top-ranked 400 meters runner in 2010, Wariner had just the 12th fastest time this season and was beaten in the U.S. championships/world trials by collegian Tony McQuay.

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – Twice U.S. Olympic silver medallist Allyson Felix may put an all-out bid for her first 200 metres gold ahead of making a run at a widely expected 200-400 metres double at next year’s London Games, the three-time world champion said on Wednesday.

Felix will attempt to become the first woman to win gold at 200 and 400 metres in a world championship next month in South Korea but said a repeat bid at London is not a certainty.

“I would not say it was set in stone … just because that 200 in London is so important to me,” Felix told Reuters in a telephone interview from Los Angeles exactly one year to the start of the 2012 Games.

Although three successive times a winner at 200 metres in the world championships, the versatile sprinter has twice come up short on the Olympic stage.

Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown bested Felix for the gold medal in Athens in 2004 and in Beijing in 2008.

“I have just been waiting for the Olympics to come around again to get an opportunity to tackle that again,” she said of the 200 metres.

“Even if it did go well (at the world championships), I am still going to have mixed emotions about (trying for the double in London).”

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – Twice U.S. Olympic silver medalist Allyson Felix may put an all-out bid for her first 200 meters gold ahead of making a run at a widely expected 200-400 meters double at next year’s London Games, the three-time world champion said on Wednesday.

Felix will attempt to become the first woman to win gold at 200 and 400 meters in a world championship next month in South Korea but said a repeat bid at London is not a certainty.

“I would not say it was set in stone … just because that 200 in London is so important to me,” Felix told Reuters in a telephone interview from Los Angeles exactly one year to the start of the 2012 Games.

Although three successive times a winner at 200 meters in the world championships, the versatile sprinter has twice come up short on the Olympic stage.

Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown bested Felix for the gold medal in Athens in 2004 and in Beijing in 2008.

“I have just been waiting for the Olympics to come around again to get an opportunity to tackle that again,” she said of the 200 meters.

“Even if it did go well (at the world championships), I am still going to have mixed emotions about (trying for the double in London).”

RALEIGH, North Carolina, July 27 (Reuters) – Twice U.S. Olympic silver medallist Allyson Felix may put an all-out bid for her first 200 metres gold ahead of making a run at a widely expected 200-400 metres double at next year’s London Games, the three-time world champion said on Wednesday.

Felix will attempt to become the first woman to win gold at 200 and 400 metres in a world championship next month in South Korea but said a repeat bid at London is not a certainty.

“I would not say it was set in stone … just because that 200 in London is so important to me,” Felix told Reuters in a telephone interview from Los Angeles exactly one year to the start of the 2012 Games.

Although three successive times a winner at 200 metres in the world championships, the versatile sprinter has twice come up short on the Olympic stage.

Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown bested Felix for the gold medal in Athens in 2004 and in Beijing in 2008.

“I have just been waiting for the Olympics to come around again to get an opportunity to tackle that again,” she said of the 200 metres.

“Even if it did go well (at the world championships), I am still going to have mixed emotions about (trying for the double in London).”

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – Three-times world 200 meters champion Allyson Felix will seek to become the first woman to win world championships gold at both 200 and 400 meters next month in South Korea, she said on Monday.

“Decided to go for the double (200/400) at WC’s,” Felix said on her Twitter account.

“Will be very difficult, but first step to accomplishing greatness is trying.”

France’s Marie-Jose Perec won both the 200 and 400 meters at the 1996 Olympics but no woman has been successful in the world championships.

Felix, 25, had debated whether to attempt the double at the Aug 27-Sept 4 championships in Daegu, South Korea because of the schedule.

The 400 meters will come first on the program, with its three rounds putting extra strain on Felix’s legs before she tries for an unprecedented fourth world 200m title.

“The fourth 200 is something that would be very special,” Felix said last month, “but the opportunity to double is something that does not come around a lot.

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – With his final attempt, South African double amputee Oscar Pistorius qualified for next month’s world championships by smashing his 400 metres personal best in Lignano, Italy on Tuesday.

Pistorius, known as the ‘Blade Runner’ because he runs with carbon fiber prosthetic running blades, clocked 45.07 seconds to record a time inside both the world championships and 2012 London Olympics qualifying mark.

“It was just a dream race,” Pistorius, 24, told Reuters in a late night telephone conversation from Lignano.

“I just have not been able to sleep. I must have 300 messages congratulating me.

“I am sure tomorrow when I wake up it (the accomplishment) is going to hit me. It is really humbling to know I have gotten so much support from everyone.”

The performance enabled Pistorius to become the first amputee sprinter to qualify for the world championships, which begin on Aug. 27 in Daegu, South Korea.

His achievement was all the more dramatic as his qualifying time was recorded on the final day of eligibility for the South African team, he said.

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – With his final attempt, South African double amputee Oscar Pistorius qualified for next month’s world championships by smashing his 400 metres personal best in Lignano, Italy Tuesday.

Pistorius, known as the ‘Blade Runner’ because he runs with carbon fibre prosthetic running blades, clocked 45.07 seconds to record a time inside both the world championships and 2012 London Olympics qualifying mark.

“It was just a dream race,” Pistorius, 24, told Reuters in a late night telephone conversation from Lignano.

“I just have not been able to sleep. I must have 300 messages congratulating me.

“I am sure tomorrow when I wake up it (the accomplishment) is going to hit me. It is really humbling to know I have gotten so much support from everyone.”

The performance enabled Pistorius to become the first amputee sprinter to qualify for the world championships, which begin on August 27 in Daegu, South Korea.

His achievement was all the more dramatic as his qualifying time was recorded on the final day of eligibility for the South African team, he said.

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – Olympic double bronze medalist Walter Dix does not buy the talk that America, without Tyson Gay, will have no answer for Jamaica’s Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell at next month’s world championships.

U.S. championship victories at 100 and 200 meters have convinced the Floridian he can be a shock factor in the short race and medal in the longer run as well at the August 27-September 4 world championships in South Korea.

“I love to prove people wrong,” Dix, who will compete in Canada’s National Track League meeting in Toronto on Wednesday, told Reuters via telephone.

World record holder Bolt recently said he believed without world silver medalist Gay, who underwent hip surgery last week, his biggest challengers in South Korea would be his Jamaican team mates and fellow Caribbean sprinters.

“I have always had the confidence I can beat those guys,” said Dix, who won the U.S. championships in respectable but not Bolt-like times. “I just haven’t been able to stay healthy since 2007. This is the first year I am doing that.”

The improved health and good results so far have sparked thoughts that Bolt could be beaten in Daegu, which is one reason Dix is competing in Toronto and ran on Sunday in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The American needs to fine-tune his start and the early portions of his 100 meters if he is to have a chance against Bolt in the world championships.