ZURICH Just over a year ago, the Weltklasse Zurich meeting was seen as but a stepping stone for Sanya Richards, inevitable six-for-six record in IAAF Golden League competition. She went on to capture a slice of the $1 million Jackpot, and ended the season as World Athlete of the Year and a clear favorite for gold at the World Championships in Osaka.

In the meantime, Briton Christine Ohuruogu began a one-year ban for missed drug tests, and fell almost completely off the radar. But a lot can happen in sport in just one short year.

Richards, who failed to qualify for Osaka from the rigid U.S. selection system, sat in the stands at Nagai Stadium last week, watching Ohuruogu, in just her second competition back, race to the World title. Their match-up on Friday at the 2007 edition of the IAAF Golden League in Zurich is among the most eagerly-anticipated of a slate of top notch head-to-heads. And among the most excited are Ohuruogu and Richards themselves.

"It's exciting," said Ohuruogu, who lowered her career best to 49.61 after a powerful display over the final homestretch in Osaka. "You don't really know what you can achieve until you're really challenged, and really pushed, and pitted against the best people in your event. And I think it,ll be a good chance for me to see exactly what I can achieve in those circumstances."

Richards, who's chasing yet another slice of the Jackpot pie, relishes the opportunity as well.

"Christine is really tough," Richards said, analysing the Briton,s Osaka performance. ,,Her last 200 is really strong, and if you don't pull away from her, and she can smell you, she's going to run you down. I thought it was a really strong 400 metre final. I really wish I could have been in it. But that wasn,t the case, and I'm really looking forward to racing her here."

Richards handily dispatched with all challengers in Oslo, Paris and Rome, and after missing out in her Osaka bid, the Jackpot chase is for her priority No. 1.

"I'm going to give it everything I have for her not to stop me. I'm going to run the race of my life tomorrow and hopefully I'm going to stay in the hunt for the Jackpot."

With the stakes not quite as high, Ohuruogu just wants to make the most out of her first Golden League outing.

"I'm looking to just go out and enjoy myself," she said. "To me it's just another race, another chance for me to just go out and see what I can do. It,s just another race, but," she emphasises, "it's an exciting race. (Richards) is a very good athlete, I really admire her as a 400 metre runner. So I'm really excited just to see what I can put up."

Although she hasn't raced a 400 in over a month, Richards said she certainly isn't feeling rusty.

"I feel really sharp," said Richards, who finished a distant fifth in the Osaka 200. "Running the 200 really sharpens your speed and makes it easier to run the first 200 of the 400."

And she insists she's quite ready.

"I really know my race and feel that if I execute my race I,ll be able to win. I feel very confident. It,s going to be tough. I've been here before so I'm not as nervous as I was last year."

"Hopefully I'll win and stay in the hunt for the Jackpot. I really do want to run fast here, I think I run low 49s, maybe 48, I,m really going to give it my best shot."

She also welcomes the challenge the Briton and Jamaican Novelene Williams - the woman who Richards picked to win in Osaka - may pose.

"You run safe when you're by yourself, so when I have competition I think that will help push me over the edge. Not just for being prepared for medals, but being prepared for faster times. I'm looking forward to the competition, I hope the athletes continue to get better, and will continue to get better."

Again analysing her challenger, Richards said, "I think that I'll have to run the first half of my race really strong and hopefully pull some of the kick out of her. And then I,ll finish strong, but I want to make sure that I'm way ahead of her so she can,t even see me."

Ohuruogu, though, isn't planning any specific tactics. "I don't think I'm going to change anything too drastically," she said. Besides, she already knows all there is to know about Richards.

"I know she's very fast."