Tyson Gay becomes the 100-meter favorite at the Olympics next summer in Beijing. Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images

Their roles are thusly assigned for at least the next year: Gay is the king, the man who delivered a gold medal performance under more pressure than he has ever experienced. He is now the favorite to win the 100 meters next summer in Beijing. Powell is the gifted choker, a very fast man who is yet to win a global championship gold.

"I waited [since '05], and I was ready," said Powell. "During the rounds I felt great. I just made a big mistake in the finals."

Gay's calm did not come without work. As recently as late June, before the U.S. national championships in Indianapolis, he expressed a creeping discomfort at his newfound stature in the track world. "I'm a little bit nervous," he said. "Not too bad yet, but a little more than I have been before, because everyone is watching me now."

Upon arrival in Osaka, he told a news conference that he wasn't entirely comfortable with working center stage, and on Sunday morning and afternoon, those feelings escalated. "I was having a lot of negative thoughts today," said Gay. "I was wondering, will people still respect me if I lose? I was real nervous."

He turned to a familiar set of arms. When Gay was growing up in Lexington, Ky. -- where his older sister, Tiffany, was the first sprinter in the family -- he would often solve problems by praying with his mother, Daisy Lowe. On Sunday afternoon he joined his mother in her hotel room in Osaka and they prayed together again. "We're a praying family," said Tim Lowe, Gay's stepfather and Daisy's husband.

"We just prayed from our heart," said Daisy. "It was all about giving all glory to God."

Gay has had no shortage of drama in his breakthrough season. Lance Brauman, his longtime coach both at Barton County (Kan.) Community College and the University of Arkansas, has spent the last nine and a half months in a minimum security prison in Texarkana, Texas after being found guilty of mail fraud and embezzlement while working at Barton County. Brauman left Gay and several other athletes who are competing at the worlds, including Veronica Campbell of Jamaica (100 meters) and Wallace Spearmon (200 meters) and Derrick Williams (400-meter hurdles) of the U.S., with thick notebooks containing a season's worth of workouts. His phone hours were limited in prison, but he would call his athletes whenever possible.

According to Brauman's wife, Kim, Lance will be released from prison on Tuesday morning and move to a halfway house in Orlando, Florida until Sept. 27. " He's not 'home' yet, but it's the next best thing," wrote Kim Brauman in an e-mail. "He will have more phone calls and Internet access during worlds so it will make communication between him and his athletes a little easier, not to mention that Jayci [the couple's three-year-old daughter] and I will get to see him."

Gay last talked to Brauman on Sunday morning. It was late Saturday for Brauman, probably not long before lights out. "He told me when he wakes up in the morning, I'll be a world champion," said Gay.

These proved prescient words. And they describe much more than just a title. They describe the gulf that now divides two young sprinters.