Gay anchors relay victory

Tyson Gay presents himself as a humble and enthusiastic performer of great track and field achievements. He offers a welcoming handshake upon introduction and an exuberant combination of strength and speed in his racing.

But whether he can become a star in the eyes of more than the kind of track and field fans who came almost 6,000 strong to Hilmer Lodger Stadium on Sunday for the Mt. San Antonio College Relays may not be in his racing performances but in his drug-testing results.

Gay, who won three gold medals -- the 100- and 200-meter individual races and the 400-meter relay -- at the 2007 world championships, anchored the victorious leg in the 400 relay. A hoped-for anchor-leg matchup with Jamaica’s Asafa Powell, the world-record holder in the 100 meters, didn’t happen when Powell scratched.

Gay was later asked not only about when he might race head to head against Powell but also the other questions every track and field star faces these days. What about doping?

His performance-enhancing drugs are limited to Advil, multivitamins and ice packs, Gay said.

His sport is suffering through a period where some dominant U.S. sprinters have either been found to be doping or are being accused of that. So, Gay sat stoically under a canopy at the sweet track in Walnut where cows tiptoed to the fence and said his focus isn’t on what drug investigations might reveal.

His thoughts are on when he will race against Powell this year and to make sure that he makes the U.S. Olympic team.

Gay was not the only star to come to Mt. SAC. Allyson Felix, a recent graduate of USC who is aiming to make the U.S. team in the 200 and the 100 or maybe the 400 if her coach, Bob Kersee, has his way, ran in two relays Sunday then signed every autograph and completed every interview requested of her.

Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica, who won two gold medals and a bronze at the Athens Olympics and who won gold in the 100 meters at last year’s world championships and a silver behind Felix in the 200, won a star-studded women’s 200 field that included Torri Edwards, who was the 2003 100-meter world champion; and Michelle Perry of Palmdale, who is the defending 100-meter hurdles world champion.

But it was Gay and Felix who drew the attention of the fans, who caused them to bring the binoculars out of their bags, sit up and stop talking.

Gay beat Powell decisively at the 2007 world championships, passing the world-record holder in the stretch and leaving Powell in third place. But it is Powell who still has that record and Gay who is eager to match up against Powell again.

“He wasn’t feeling his best,” Gay said Sunday. “I wasn’t looking good when we were practicing yesterday. Too bad because it would have been fun to go against him.”

Powell spoke to the crowd and said he was “quite impressed” with Gay’s form, but that he didn’t feel 100% physically. Gay said he hoped to run against Powell somewhere in Europe before the August Olympics, maybe in London.

What he wouldn’t talk about are the shudders running through his sport after reports that recently retired U.S. star Maurice Greene had failed drug tests, joining the list of tainted American sprinters such as former U.S. world-record holder Justin Gatlin and Tim Montgomery and women’s star Marion Jones. The reports on Greene, however, have been denied by Greene. The IAAF, track and field’s international governing body, at this point is standing behind him.

“I can’t comment on it. I don’t know much about it,” Gay said.

What was apparent Sunday was that both Gay and Felix are in good form. The relay leg times taken from the press box were unofficial, but Gay ran an anchor leg of 8.88 seconds in the 400 event. Felix ran an unofficial leg of 9.8 in the 400 and 49.8 in the 1,600.

“Those were very good times,” Kersee said.

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diane.pucin@latimes.com