Johnson-Lewis Match Stuck at Starting Block : Track: The long-awaited big-money showdown between the two champion sprinters will not take place until next year at the earliest, a source says.

NEW YORK —  The anxiously awaited showdown between sprinters Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis will not take place this year, a source told the Associated Press today.

“It doesn’t make any sense from a training and a preparation standpoint,” said the source, who asked not to be identified.

“There’s possibly a lot of money going to be lost, but basically, Ben is going to start his season indoors (in 1991).”

Johnson has not competed since the 1988 Olympic Games at Seoul, South Korea, where he finished first in the 100-meter dash, but then was disqualified and banned for two years after testing positive for anabolic steroids.

The suspension expires Sept. 24, and there had been considerable discussion of a big-money race against Lewis, the Olympic runner-up who was awarded the gold medal and the world record of 9.92 seconds after Johnson’s disqualification.

Lewis and his associates have insisted that certain conditions would have to be met for the rematch.

“Those include that it be in the context of a legitimate competition, with other events, and full drug testing, of course,” Lewis said recently. “It is very important that if there is something like this, it be done in a positive way.”

Meanwhile, Lewis is expected to be sidelined for the next three weeks after suffering a leg injury during a New York track meet last week, a family spokesman said today.

According to University of Houston coach Thomas Tellez, Lewis, 29, was scheduled to run in Brussels this weekend but will have to sit out until the leg heals.