Felix Sanchez celebrates winning the 2004 Olympic 400m hurdles title in Athens (© Getty Images)
Athens Olympic hurdles gold medallists Felix Sanchez, Liu Xiang and Joanna Hayes headline the Prefontaine Classic at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field on Saturday 4 June.
Tim Mack, Yuriy Borzakovskiy, Tonique Williams-Darling, Yuliya Nesterenko and Yelena Slesarenko are other 2004 Olympic gold medallists slated to compete in the IAAF Grand Prix meet.
Prefontaine celebrates 31st year
The 31st Prefontaine Classic will feature the gold and silver medallists from Athens in the men’s 110m, 400m Hurdles and Pole Vault and the women’s 100m and 400m.
The meet is named after American and former Oregon distance runner Steve Prefontaine, who died in an automobile accident at age 24 in 1975. Athletes must be ranked in the Top 50 in the world in their events to be eligible to compete
Sanchez back to defend title
Felix Sanchez ran his season debut in the 400m Hurdles at the 2004 Prefontaine en route to the gold medal in Athens and a season-best of 47.63.
Sanchez’s streak of 43 races without a loss in the intermediates came to an end because of a hamstring injury in the Memorial Van Damme meeting in Brussels last September.
Sanchez’s fitness will receive a test on Saturday with Athens silver medallist Danny McFarlane of Jamaica and Bershawn Jackson, who ran a world-leading 47.62 in the adidas Track Classic on 22 May to move into ninth on the all-time US list.
In all, the 400m Hurdles will have the top five ranked hurdlers in the world in 2005 with US Olympic Trials winner James Carter and Bayano Kamani of Panama, who finished fourth and fifth in Athens.
US debuts for Xiang, Borzakovskiy, Nesterenko and Slesarenko
Liu Xiang of China, Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia and Yuliya Nesterenko of Belarus will make their first appearances in the US.
Xiang is the favourite in the 110m high hurdles after equaling the World record of 12.91 set in 1993 by Britain’s Colin Jackson in the Athens final at age 21.
It will be a long anticipated match-up between Xiang and four-time World champion Allen Johnson, 34, who fell in the quarter-finals in Athens.
Xiang and Johnson will be joined by Terrence Trammell, the 2000 and 2004 Olympic silver medallist; Duane Ross, the 1999 World bronze medallist; and Rom Bramlett, the 2001 and 2002 NCAA champion.
In the 800m, the meet record of 1:44.62 could be taken down by Borzakovskiy, who boasts a two-lap PR of 1:42.27. Borzakovskiy will face Americans Khadevis Robinson, David Krummenacker, Derrick Peterson and Canadian national record holder Gary Reed.
The women’s 100m will pit Nesterenko and American Lauryn Williams, who finished first and second in Athens. The race features Jamaica’s Aleen Bailey and Sherone Simpson and 2004 US Olympic Trials winner LaTasha Colander and Muna Lee of the US, the Payton Jordan US Open 100 winner and Athens Olympic 200m semi-finalist.
Slesarenko moved into third on the all-time women’s High Jump list with a 2.06m clearance in the Athens final. Slesarenko, 23, who scaled 2 metres 12 times last season, will take on Americans Tisha Waller and Amy Acuff, who share the Pre meet record of 1.98m.
Mack and Stevenson renew PV rivalry
Tim Mack and Toby Stevenson, who finished first and second in the Athens Pole Vault final, will meet for the second time in six days.
The showdown between the Americans fizzled in the Payton Jordan US Open at Stanford on 31 May fizzled when both vaulters failed to clear the opening height of 5.50m.
Mack was sidelined during the indoor season with a strained calf but cleared 5.85m in his second outdoor competition. Stevenson emerged as an Olympic medal contender last season when he cleared 6.00m en route to finishing second to Mack in the US Olympic Trials and Olympics.
Mack and Stevenson are part of a field that includes American record holder Jeff Hartwig, 2004 US Olympian Derek Miles, 2000 Olympic champion Nick Hysong and 2001 World champion Dmitri Markov of Australia.
US Open winner Jacob Pauli and 2004 NCAA champion Tommy Skipper of Oregon are other entrants.
Wiliams-Darling and Guevara rematch in 400m
Tonique Wiliams-Darling of the Bahamas and Ana Guevara of Mexico dueled in the Athens 400m final with Williams-Darling emerging on top. Guevara, however, rebounded to win the Grand Prix Final after being slowed by a knee injury.
Guevara had a streak of 28 consecutive races broken by Williams-Darling, who posted five consecutive victories on the Mexican national record holder that culminated with the Olympic finals win.
The Prefontaine 400m includes six finalists from Athens with Williams-Darling and Guevara along with Monique Hennagan (fourth), Dee Dee Trotter (fifth) and Sanya Richards (sixth), who teamed on the US gold medal winning 4x400m relay, and seventh-place finisher Christine Amertil.
Also in the field Lashinda Demus, who relinquished her final season of collegiate eligibility at South Carolina to turn professional, was a 2004 Olympic semi-finalist in the 400m Hurdles and the World Junior record holder in the 400m hurdles.
Hayes and Felicien in 100m Hurdles
Joanna Hayes and Canada’s Perdita Felicien will race for the third time this season after splitting their two match-ups.
Hayes, who won the 2004 Olympic gold medal in an Olympic record 12.37 after a fall by Felicien in the final, beat Felicien in the adidas Track Classic.
Felicien, the 2003 World champion, edged Hayes at the finish of their first meeting in the Jamaica International Invitational on 7 May. Felicien won last year’s Pre meet in a career-best 12.46.
Hayes and Felicien might be upstaged by Jamaica’s Brigitte Foster, who set the meet record of 12.45 in 2003, and compatriot Lacena Golding-Clarke, who finished fifth in the Olympics and Americans Melissa Morrison, the 2004 Olympic bronze medallist, and Danielle Carruthers, the 2005 USATF Indoor champion.
Lucky thirteen for Mutola?
Maria Mutola of Mozambique has been a fixture at Pre since her debut in 1991 as a high school senior in nearby Springfield when she suffered her only loss after being shoved on the final turn of the 1500m.
Mutola hasn’t lost since at any distance at Pre over the last 12 years. Mutola, 32, will be looking for her 13th victory in a row in the 800m at Pre on Saturday.
The World champion will be challenged by American record holder Jearl Miles and her sister in law and two-time Olympian Hazel Clark and US compatriots Nicole Teter, Alice Schmidt and US Open winner Frances Santin; national record holders Marian Burnett of Guyana and Agnes Samaria of Namibia, who trains in Eugene under Mutola’s coach Margo Jennings.
Blockbuster men’s two-Mile
The two mile has not been run at Pre since 1995 but Saturday’s edition figures to be talked about for years to come when reigning World 5000m champion Eliud Kipchoge will take on Americans Alan Webb and Dathan Ritzenhein.
Kipchoge, 20, was the world-leader at 3000m at 7:27.62 and has run 7:28.56 this season. Webb and Ritzenhein, both 22, have had historic races at Hayward Field.
In the 2001 Prefontaine meet, Webb ran 3:53.43 in the mile to break the US high school record of 3:55.3 that had stood since 1965. Last year, Webb ran a career-best 3:50.85 for his first improvement at the distance since his Pre race three years earlier.
Last month, Ritzenhein, the 2001 World Junior cross country bronze medallist, clocked a lifetime-best of 13:23.23 at the Oregon Twilight 5000m at Hayward Field.
Radcliffe drops down to 1500m
Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain, the marathon World record holder, will test her speed in the 1500m against Athens silver medallist Tatyana Tomshova and 2003 Pre 1500m champion and Olympic 800m bronze medallist Jolanda Ceplak of Slovenia.
The race also includes the top three Americans of 2004 in the metric mile with Carrie Tollefson, Jennifer Toomey and Shayne Culpepper.
Hicham El Guerrouj has withdrawn from the men’s mile because of illness. The Moroccan’s 2001 meet record of 3:49.92 for the fastest time run on US soil, though, is expected to be challenged by Bernard Lagat.
Lagat, the Athens 1,500m silver medallist for Kenya who has applied for US citizenship, has run indoor marks of 3:49.89 for the mile and 3:33.34 in the 1500m and 3:34.34 outdoors in the 1500m. All marks are the fastest by an American in 2005.
Sands and Kotova head horizontal jumps
Leevan Sands of the Bahamas and Tatyana Kotova of Russia head the men’s Triple Jump and women’s Long Jump.
Sands, the 2003 World Championships bronze medallist, faces Americans Kenta Bell, Walter Davis and 2004 Olympic Trials champion Melvin Lister. All four jumped over 17.37m in 2004.
In the women’s Long Jump, Kotova, the Athens bronze medallist, faces Anju Bobby George, who finished third in the 2003 World Championships to become India’s first World Championship medallist, and US Olympic Trials runner-up Grace Upshaw.
Kirby Lee (The Sporting Image) for the IAAF
