Courtesy: USATF

Led by Olympic gold medalists Marion Jones, Allen Johnson and Gail Devers, a potent lineup of U.S. champions will take on the best athletes the rest of the world has to offer next week at the 9th IAAF World Cup in Athletics. The two-day event, held every four years, will be held September 20-21 at La Comunidad Stadium in Madrid, Spain.

A points-based format of team competition, the World Cup will pit Team USA against five continental squads from Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe and Oceania. Germany, Spain, Great Britain's men and Russia's women also will field teams. At stake are world bragging rights and prize money of $3,022,500, with $30,000 going to the winner of each individual event. One athlete from each team competes in each event in a finals-only format. Team points are awarded ranging from nine points for a first-place finish down to one point.

Led by a double sprint win by Marion Jones at the 1998 World Cup, the U.S. women return as defending team champions. The American men have won the World Cup three times, in 1985, '89 and '95, a hat trick matched on the men' s side only by the African team. While competing as East Germany, German women posted four World Cup victories from 1979-89.

Heading into the World Cup, three members of Team USA own the best marks in the world in their events: Gail Devers (women's 100m hurdles - 12.40), Savante Stringfellow (men's long jump - 8.52m/ 27-11.5) and Adam Nelson (men 's shot put - 22.51m/ 73-10.25).

Although Zhanna Pintusevich Block of Ukraine leads the world in the 100m (10.83), Marion Jones (10.84) is undefeated in 2002, has beaten Pintusevich Block in each of their three races and is number 1 ranked by the IAAF. Also owning the #2 marks in the world are Tim Montgomery (men's 100m - 9.91), Alvin Harrison (men's 400m - 44.48) and Allen Johnson (men's 110m hurdles - 13.04).

U.S. athletes qualified for the World Cup by winning their events at the 2002 USA Outdoor Championships June 21-23 in Palo Alto, Calif. If the winner declined his or her World Cup team slot or was unable to compete, the next-highest placing athlete able to compete at the World Cup was selected for the team.