Four years ago at the world championships in Paris, an extraordinary scenario exploded on a warm Sunday evening at the Stade de France. The quarter-finals of the men’s 100m were in full flow when American Jon Drummond was disqualified for a false start.

Never one to avoid a touch of showmanship, let alone controversy, Drummond chose to lie on his back in his lane, protesting that he had not broken the rules and he refused to move. He delayed the meeting by half an hour, eventually leaving to jeers from a crowd of 50,000.

Few remember that Drummond was not the only athlete kicked out of that heat, yet it is hardly a surprise that Asafa Powell walked away without too much of a complaint when he was also adjudged to have burst too early from his blocks.

Back in 2003, Powell was in his first full season on the circuit and it hardly mattered that he would be missing from the rest of the competition. He was the new star of Jamaican sprinting, but a bit-part player in the Caribbean, whose Commonwealth Games champion in 2002, Kim Collins, from St Kitts and Nevis, progressed to win gold in Paris.

Here today, in Japan’s second biggest city, on a super-fast track but on a night of expected tough humidity, all the fuss could be about Powell, who bids to win his first world or Olympic 100m title after striking gold at the Commonwealth Games last year. He had better watch out. Not only is his chief rival Tyson Gay determined that he will beat him, but the American is being coached on his starts by, of all people, Drummond.

Barring something spectacular happening and neither man progressing, the world championships could be treated to the best 100m final since the competition was last in Japan, in Tokyo, in 1991, when Carl Lewis broke the world record and five men behind him all dipped under 10 seconds.

Tonight should be about just two of them: Powell, a deeply religious sprinter who has run the world record of 9.77sec on three occasions, and Gay, who has built up his speed all season, is the year’s fastest man with 9.84sec and ran a wind-assisted 9.76sec.

Their similarities are that they are both quiet, and Gay was even quick to apologise when his grandfather thought he had heard him bad-mouthing his greatest opponent. “I was not,” he said. “I have never been cocky.” Gay does not have to be loud. He has Drummond to do that.

“He is an exceptional talent, one of the best we have seen in the last decade,” said Drummond recently. “He is the evolution of the 100m. He is built to sprint: tall with little feet.”

It has been a strange year for Gay, who has been in continual contact with his main coach Lance Brauman, who has been serving a prison sentence in Kansas for fraud. He is due out any day, and he has been sending his training plans to his star pupil. Drummond has stepped in, but here yesterday Powell looked more impressive in his search for a big title.

At the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, Powell was only fifth as Justin Gatlin, of the USA, won gold. But he returned to the same track in Greece the following June to run the first of his three runs of 9.77sec. The other two arrived last year, in Gateshead and Zurich, but in 2005, at the last world championships in Helsinki, he was missing with a groin injury.

Gatlin won there, too, but his game was up last summer. He was banned for eight years – a suspension he is still appealing against – after he tested positive and both Powell and Gay know that here in Japan the event’s reputation has never needed a greater cleansing. A world record from two men who insist – and how we hope they are not fooling us – that they are running on pure talent.

The final of 1991, where Lewis triumphed in 9.86sec, remains one of the classic 100m achievements. Breaking the world record in winning at an Olympic Games or world championships is the ultimate double.

Gay and Powell have avoided each other this summer but, as the American said: “This race is what everybody has been waiting for.” Both eased into this afternoon’s semi-finals. Even though he had been sluggish in his opening heat, Powell looked a different character in the quarter-finals. He was quicker out of his blocks, and by 50m, when he had the heat won, he gradually slowed down. He had so much in storage that what could happen in the final could be breathtaking.

Powell won in 10.01sec before Gay triumphed in the second of the quarter-finals in 10.06sec, with Britain’s Marlon Devonish second in 10.13sec.

Significantly, Gay did not talk about Powell or a world record but said: “I was not great because of a false start and there is more speed to come.”

All three British sprinters progressed, with Devonish being followed by Mark Lewis-Francis, who was second in his heat in 10.17sec, a season’s best time as Churandy Martina, of the Netherlands Antilles, won in 10.10sec, while Craig Pickering took the last quarter-final in 10.21sec.

Devonish remains an outside bet for bronze, but he provided an insight into what could happen in front of him. He said: “It was so hot out there that when you put your hands down in the blocks, it was burning and as water was poured onto the lanes, it was evaporating. The track is hard and lightning-fast.”

Heavens only knows what sparks Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay will produce today.