Osaka (Japan) Aug 24: Police and fried chicken outlets will be on alert for anything going splash in the night during the world athletics championships in Osaka.

Competition begins tomorrow in the western Japanese metropolis famous for the ''curse of the Colonel'' and where the sports-crazy locals often plunge into the city's murky canal.

Asafa Powell's 100 metres showdown with Tyson Gay may dominate on the track but Kentucky Fried Chicken employees will be peering anxiously through shop-front windows away from it.

After the Hanshin Tigers won the Japan Series baseball in 1985, thousands of baseball fans jumped into the Dotombori canal, taking a statue of the Colonel pinched along the way with them.

The Man in White was never seen again but the Tigers have been easy to find extra crispy and usually at the bottom of their league ever since.

Frogmen failed to dredge up the statue but they were rushed into action again during the 2002 soccer World Cup when co-hosts Japan reached the last 16.

While incidents of locals risking life and limb by leaping off bridges may be less frequent during the world championships, organisers expect the competition to be a resounding success.

''Osaka is a special city,'' organising committee public relations manager Yasuhiro Uchiyama said. ''We want to see world records but we want the competition to leave a legacy.''

TOKYO EPIC

The hi-tech city has a tough act to follow after the 1991 world championships in Tokyo produced an epic long jump battle between Americans Carl Lewis and Mike Powell.

Lewis recorded the best six-jump series in history only for Powell to win gold with a stunning leap of 8.95 metres, breaking Bob Beamon's world record from the 1968 Olympics.

Osaka organisers are hoping a super-fast track will yield similar records, with Gay and Powell in the 100m and Jeremy Wariner bidding to challenge Michael Johnson's 400m world mark.

The city is bracing itself for a party whatever happens and restaurant owners are swotting up on their English, French and Korean in preparation for the invasion of foreigners.

''There will be over 100,000 people in the city's hotels,'' Uchiyama said. ''They'll get the old Osaka charm a typically warm reception. That's what we do best.'' Free tickets for schoolchildren will also help boost the atmosphere and fill empty seats on week days while the Japanese Emperor will be in attendance on the opening weekend.

''With Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell in the 100 and Wariner in the 400 it could be an historical event,'' IAAF president Lamine Diack told reporters. ''It could match Tokyo in 1991.''

Reuters
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