MOSCOW, Idaho - The Super Bowl of track and field is set to kick off this week in Edmonton, Alberta, and the University of Idaho will be well represented. The World Championships in Athletics start August 3, 2001 and Vandals Angela Whyte, Joachim Olsen and Sherwin James are vying for titles in four events.

Sponsored by the International Amateur Athletics Federation, the competition crowns world champions in track and field August 3-12. The World Championships are held in odd-numbered years, opposite the Olympics and Commonwealth Games.

For one UI athlete, the championships will be particularly meaningful. Whyte, who is competing in the 100-meter hurdles, is an Edmonton native. She is also taking part in her first World Championships.

"This is a great first experience," Whyte said. "How often does it happen you get to compete in your home city? It's a big enough thing to compete, but the adrenaline will be flowing even more."

Whyte is hoping the home track advantage will help her nerves and push her to a top performance.

"The Canadian trials were held there as a test run for this event," Whyte said. "Everything that I'll do during the World Championships, I've done there before. I'll be prepared technically, because I know where they hold the runners and things like that.

"But, this will be my first world-class meet."

Whyte should be up for the challenge. Her best time of 12.82 came earlier during the NCAA season and she thought the time was under the legal wind limits. That time would be good enough for 10th in the world this year.

However, she later learned the wind made that time unallowable, knocking her recognized best back to 13.09. Whyte competes August 9 at 5:00 p.m. (PDT) when the preliminaries are run.

The semifinals are scheduled for August 10 at 6:35 p.m. and the final will be run the following day at 2:50 p.m.

Sherwin James will compete in two events at his second World Championships. He took part in the 1999 World's at Athens, Greece.

James will compete in the 100 meters and 200 meters. For James the big stage is nothing new. He was an Olympian in 2000 when he traveled to Sydney, Australia. He competed in the long jump and 200 meters for his native country of Dominica.

The 100m begins August 4 with preliminaries at 9:30 a.m. and quarterfinals at 3:05 p.m. The semifinals will be the following day at 2:30 p.m., but runners don't get much time to recover for the final. The champion will be crowned about 10 seconds after 5:35 p.m.

James will have two or three days to rest before tackling the 200m. The preliminaries are August 7 at 8:45 a.m. with quarterfinals that evening at 5:55. The semifinals are slated for August 8 at 5:45 p.m. and the final will occur at 8:40 p.m. the next night.

The Idaho participant with perhaps the best chance to place well is Joachim Olsen. The Danish thrower is competing in the shot put as he did in the 2000 Olympic Games. Currently ranked 20th in the world in the IAAF standings, his prospects appear bright.

Olsen won the 2000 NCAA Outdoor title in the shot put and was the runner-up in 2001 to the ninth-ranked thrower in the world.

He also competed in the discus at the 2001 NCAA Outdoor Championships and finished sixth. Olsen has finished in the top three in the shot put at all six NCAA indoor and outdoor championships in his career.

Olsen throws in the first round of shot put competition August 4 at 7:30 a.m. The final for the event is at 4 p.m. the same day.

The World's start competition August 3 with the men's marathon and concludes August 12 with the men's 4x100-meter relay.