All smiles Allyson Felix wins the women's 200m (© Getty Images)
Three reigning World ChampionsTyson Gay, Allyson Felix and Jeremy Wariner – are set to compete at the adidas Track Classic on May 18, organizers announced. Among them, the trio brought home eight gold medals from the 2007 World Championships, and all are destined for the Olympic spotlight later this summer.
The adidas Track Classic is one of a select group of Area meetings at which points can be acquired by athletes to qualify for the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final, to be held on 13-14 September in Stuttgart.
Gay, who won gold at 100m, 200m and the 4x100m Relay in Osaka, was named 2007 male Athlete of the Year. Among his many other honors last year, Gay was ranked #1 in the world at 100 and 200m by Track & Field News magazine, which also named him Man of the Year.
Felix also won three gold medals at the World Championships, at 200m and both the 4x100 and 4x400m Relays. In defending her 200m title, the Los Angeles native ran 21.81 seconds, the fastest time in the world by any woman in the last eight years. A 2004 Olympic silver medalist, the 22-year-old finished the year ranked not only #1 in the world at 200m, but #3 at 400m and #6 at 100m, by Track & Field News. For their efforts, Felix and Gay were named the 2007 Jesse Owens Award winners as the top track and field athletes in the United States.
Wariner, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist at 400m and the 4x400m relay, was also ranked #1 in the world by Track & Field News for 2007 after defending his World Champion titles. Dominant at the distance for the past three years, Wariner notched six of the top 10 times in the world last year; his winning time of 43.45 seconds in Osaka topped the 2007 list.
Wariner has already competed in his specialty this season, winning at the Melbourne Grand Prix - IAAF World Athletics Tour - in February clocking 44.82.
The events at which the three athletes are competing will be announced soon.
The adidas Track Classic will begin at 12:30 p.m. on 18 May at The Home Depot Center, on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills, and will be broadcast live in the United States on ESPN from 1 p.m.-3 p.m. PDT (4 p.m.-6 p.m. EDT).
Barbara Heubner for the IAAF