www.prefontaine.com
29 May 2000 - Meet and Hayward Field Record holder Luke Kipkosgei of Kenya, and American Record holder Bob Kennedy, will return to Eugene on Saturday, June 24th for the 26th annual Prefontaine Classic Grand Prix.
Kipkosgei, a two-time winner of the distance race in the Pre Classic, has a personal best time of 12:57.32. Kennedy, the number-one ranked 5000 metre runner for eight of the past nine years, has a personal best of 12:58.21. Kipkosgei holds the Meet and Stadium Record of 13:07.83, set in 1998.
Joining these two is a loaded field of established veterans and ambitious newcomers. In this latter category is NCAA Cross Country Champion David Kimani, who is a freshman at the University of South Alabama. He'll be joined by a number of runners with a distinctly Oregon flavor, including former Ducks Karl Keska of Great Britain and Nick Rogers, who ran 27:55.17 for 10k earlier this month. Current Oregon star Steve Fein is also entered, as is Fein's former Pac-10 rival from Arizona, Abdi Abdirahman.
In the former category are Ryan Wilson, ranked No. 4 in the U.S. last year; Martin Keino, son of the legendary Kip Keino; Dan Browne, ranked No; 6 in the U.S. in '99; Andre Williams, ranked No. 7 in the U.S. last year; and Pascal Dobert, the top-ranked American steeplechaser for the past two years.