Shalane Flanagan en route to her US 5000m indoor record (© Victah Sailer)
Carson, CA, USAThe adidas Track Classic which takes place at the Home Depot Center on 16 May will feature international match-ups of Olympic medallists and World Champions at the middle and long distances.
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 12-13 September in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Headlining the women’s 5000m will be U.S. star Shalane Flanagan, the Olympic bronze medallist at 10,000m in Beijing who has already broken one American mark this year, for 5000m indoors. Among her top rivals will be Ethiopian sisters Ejegayehu and Genzebe Dibaba. Ejegayehu is the 2004 Olympic silver medallist at 10,000m and 2005 World Championships bronze medallist at both 5000m and 10,000m, while younger sister Genzebe is a two-time World Junior Cross Country champion and last weekend won the Ethiopian senior 5000m national title at only 18-years-old.
The men’s 1500m meanwhile, will feature the entire 2008 U.S. Olympic squad of Bernard Lagat, Lopez Lomong and Leonel Manzano. Lagat, the American record holder at 1500m, is the reigning World champion at 1500m and 5000m - the first man ever to win that double. Joining them will be three-time U.S. indoor 1500m champion Rob Myers, Canadian 1500m record holders Kevin Sullivan (outdoors) and Nate Brannen (indoors), and Mexican national indoor record holder Pablo Solares.
The 2009 adidas Track Classic will also highlight winners from the major Jamaica Invitational in Kingston last weekend. Among them are USA’s Dawn Harper, the surprise 2008 Olympic gold medallist in the 100m Hurdles, and Darvis Patton, a 100m finalist in Beijing, Jamaica’s Novlene Williams, a 4x400m World Championship bronze medallist; and Rennie Quow, the 2006 World Junior Champion at 400m from Trinidad and Tobago.
Organisers for the IAAF