The most intense rivalry in sprinting gathered steam Wednesday when the world’s fastest man turned out to be the world’s fastest men.

Because of a timing error, Olympic champion and former Tennessee runner Justin Gatlin didn’t break the world 100-meter mark last weekend after all. Instead, he now shares track’s most coveted record with Jamaican Asafa Powell, who set it at 9.77 seconds last year.

They’ll get their first chance to start sorting it out May 28 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. — just not in the same race.

Both will run 100 meters at the Prefontaine Classic, but the event will be divided into two eight-man fields, with Gatlin in one and Powell in the other, meet promoter Tom Jordan told The Associated Press.

That creates the intriguing possibility of one of the sprinters watching in person while the other breaks the world record, or even one record-breaking race followed by another.

"It does kind of whet the appetite," Jordan said.

The two can’t race against each other, Jordan said, because they are contractually obligated — for a high fee — to a match race June 11 at the Norwich British Union Grand Prix in Gateshead, England.

Gatlin, the 24-year-old American who won the Olympic 100-meter gold medal in Athens and is the reigning 100- and 200-meter world champion, was told he had broken the record with a 9.76-second clocking under the lights in Doha, Qatar, last Friday night.

But the sport’s governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, announced on Wednesday that there had been a timing error, and Gatlin actually ran 9.77, matching Powell’s record set in Athens, Greece, on June 14, 2005.

Gatlin didn’t grant interviews on Wednesday, but a statement he released through USA Track & Field showed he was perturbed that it took so long to get it right.

"It is very disappointing to me that it has taken five days to determine the official time of a race with this significance," he said. "I remain confident that I am the world’s fastest man and I look forward to proving it once again. My parents raised me to be a good sport, but I don’t want to share the world record."

Even in the often-wacky world of track and field, the mistake was unheard since the advent of sophisticated digital timing equipment.

"As a sport, it’s embarrassing," said Craig Masback, executive director of USA Track & Field, "and I feel badly for Justin."

The error, and all the attention it received, only intensifies the already heated rivalry between Gatlin and Powell, and provides some welcome attention to track and field halfway between the Athens and Beijing Olympics.

"He said he was ready to run faster this year," Masback said in a telephone interview, "and frankly I think it does create a lot of interest because you have these two great runners, both of whom are confident of running faster."

The IAAF, in announcing the change in Gatlin’s time, said he was clocked in 9.766 seconds, and the official reading should manually have been rounded up to 9.77.

The federation said it acted after being informed of the error by Tissot Timing, the Swiss company in charge of the recording the times at the Doha event.

"The IAAF rounding rule, to be initiated manually on the timing system, had not been activated as instructed," Tissot said in a statement from its headquarters. "Tissot Timing regrets the occurrence and apologizes for this unique incident."

Under IAAF rules, a time is always rounded up to the next one-hundredth of a second.

"We’re very disappointed for Justin but we think he’s got all the talent to get the record again soon," IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said. "It’s better to have an honest result."

Davies said it’s believed to be the first time a world record has been taken away days later because of a timing adjustment. Gatlin’s agent, Renaldo Nehemiah, said, "It’s an embarrassment to our sport that something of this magnitude could be blown like that."

The IAAF learned of the error Tuesday after Tissot reviewed the times from Qatar. Under IAAF procedures, formal ratification of a world record can take months.

"If Tissot hadn’t announced it, we would have caught it eventually," Davies said.

Tom Jennings, president of Flash Results Inc., which times all major U.S. meets, said his company’s software automatically records times to the next one-hundredth of a second as required by IAAF rules.

"It’s always rounded up, there is no rounding down," he said. "If the third decimal point is above a zero, you round it up."

Gatlin’s previous best was the 9.85 he ran in winning the Olympic gold in Athens in 2004. His time was 9.88 when he won the world title last year in Helsinki, Finland.

"Justin still takes some solace in being the co-record holder," Nehemiah said. "This will just motivate him and inspire him."

AP sports writers Stephen Wilson in London and Andrea Adelson in New York contributed to this story.