Maurice Greene, the world's fastest man, has agreed a pay-cut to run in the London grand prix at Crystal Palace on August 7th and add his name to an event which is shaping up to be the greatest one-day meeting ever in Britain.

The American has been commanding £64,000 per appearance in Europe since setting a world record for the 100 metres of 9.79 seconds in Athens last month. But the world champion has dropped his price to £50,000 to take on Britain's promising youngsters Jason Gardener, Dwain Chambers and Darren Campbell and the Olympic champion Donovan Bailey, the man he deposed as record holder.

Among those already signed up for the meeting are America's Marion Jones and Haile Gebrselassie of Ethopia, the respective world female and male athletes of last year, and Morocco's Hicham el Guerrouj, the new mile world record holder.