Who said track and field was dead in America? The US Olympic trials are still six weeks away, but already 152,600 tickets have been sold for the eight-day meeting which will be held in Sacramento, California from July 14th.

That has already surpassed the 1996 figure for the Atlanta trials - which was a record attendance at the time - and so far means a daily average of 19,075 track fans will fill the Hornet Stadium (which has a capacity of just 20,700). Expect it to be a sell-out very shortly.

Of course, the US trials is a meeting like no other. The top three finishers in each event automatically qualify for Sydney - with no excuses taken, no matter who you are. That means expected gold medallists such as Michael Johnson and Marion Jones must be on top of their form or else, like the rest of us, they'll be watching it all on television.