Newly crowned US 100m hurdles champion Virginia Powell has been conspicuous by her absence from this summer's European circuit - by choice fortunately and not circumstance.

The 22- year- old rocked the athletics world June 9th when she set a collegiate record of 12.48 seconds in winning her second consecutive NCAA title in her specialty. The mark eclipsed the standard set by former Olympic champion Gail Devers and sent her to the top of this year's list of fastest times.

Two weeks later she won her first USATF Championship beating a stellar field which included Damu Cherry currently ranked number two in the world, 2005 IAAF World Champion Michelle Perry and perennial US hurdles star Jenny Adams. Since then Powell has remained in Los Angeles - apart from a quick vacation in Atlanta - and has been preparing for the second half of the European tour. She intends to tackle the world's best in Stockholm's DN Galen meet, July 25th.

"I would love to be over there running in those meets," Powell says after reviewing results of European Grand Prix and Golden League competitions. "Sounds like they are running fast times in those meets over there."

"I have no injuries; I am just taking care of my body and building my base back. I decided to take a break - I am assuming it was the correct decision - for now because my body was tired coming off the collegiate season. It would have been hard for me to go at the speed I was going at. You are kind of asking for an injury when you keep going and trying to peak and peak and peak."

Having qualified for the IAAF World Cup of Athletics as the American champion she intends to join the US team in Athens for the year's biggest athletics gathering. It will not be her first experience in US colours though.

Last summer she reached the semi-finals of the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki and she has also competed in the IAAF World Junior Championships. From this point forward she is a professional athlete however and she is well aware that she can earn a decent living with her talent. The winners in Athens, for example, will earn $30,000US in prize money not to mention bonuses from their respective sponsors.

Powell graduated from USC this year with a degree in Public Policy and Public Management Planning and then promptly signed an endorsement contract with Nike. Her college coach Professor Tommy Lee White remains her mentor and she has a business advisor but so far she has shunned the approaches of various athlete agents preferring to contact meet directors herself by email.

Confident in addition to being immensely talented, she realises she has not yet begun to explore her true potential.

"I always believe I can run faster," she declares. "You always think you can run faster. That is how I think. My goals? The world record and the American record are amongst my goals. I have a long career ahead of me."

"As far as studying the event I have always known who has come before me, the good hurdlers of the past. I know that Gail Devers is a top name. Just accomplishing what I have accomplished so far, I have never seen the world record run, I don't even know how to pronounce her name, but I think I am perfectly capable of getting it done."

Yordanka Donkova's world record is 12.21 seconds. Powell was five years old when the Bulgarian set it. The American record is 12.33 seconds held by Devers for the past six years and is a step closer. She admits that Devers was among a select few athletes she admired as a youngster.

"When I was younger and growing up I looked up to a few athletes. It is more when I was younger, and not now," she explains. "When you get on this level you don't look up to athletes any more but you might look up to older legends who have done a lot in their particular sport. When I was growing up I always looked up to Marion Jones and Flojo (Florence Griffith-Joyner) and Gail Devers. Definitely Marion Jones. Now, I can't say there is one I want to be like; I have never thought about that."

Since she was a young girl growing up in Seattle, Washington, Powell has been a practicing Buddhist and she believes this gives her inner strength.

"Always before my competitions I pray," she declares. "I am a Buddhist and so I chant. That is a ritual I always do before a race, I will never go into a race or go to a competition without doing my prayers. I was born into it. My mom and her family grew up catholic but then she became a Buddhist."

"You chant twice a day always. You do a lot of activities for the organisation and pray for others' happiness. It's like a philosophy so I read Buddhist books, the teaching of cause and effect, karma and stuff, things that I relate to every day life. I pray and then I go to activities. My team mates look up to me and I kind of mentor them a bit."

Her team mates are what she calls her "surrogate family" and they accompany her on shopping expeditions or to the movies when she feels the need to get away from track and field for a bit.

And they will be watching closely for the results in Stockholm and other European venues as their friend takes on the world's best. Clearly she belongs at the top. The prospects of record breaking times are tantalising.