Head-to-head encounters feature strongly on the fourth stop of the 2016 IAAF Diamond League in Eugene, Oregon, giving the famed Prefontaine Classic meeting the look of an Olympic Games preview on Friday and Saturday (27-28).

Jamaica’s Omar McLeod, the IAAF World Indoor Championships Portland 2016 60m hurdles gold medallist and Kenya’s 2015 400m hurdles world champion Nicholas Bett head the men’s hurdles fields at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Eugene on Saturday (28).

The Bauhaus-Galan is taking advantage of the recent rescheduling of the Kenyan Olympic Trials and will now welcome four of the East African nation’s world champions to the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Stockholm on 16 June.

World champion Nicholas Bett heads a 400m hurdles line-up at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Shanghai on 14 May that could even put the meeting’s favourite event, the sprint hurdles, in the shade.

Statisticians A Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava look back on the best hurdles performances of the year.

When the gun fired for the men’s 400m hurdles final in the Bird’s Nest stadium on Tuesday night, Nicholas Bett knew exactly what he needed to do if he was to overcome the odds – and accepted wisdom – to claim Kenya’s first ever global medal in the event.

Kenya had won 45 gold medals in the history of the IAAF World Championships prior to the gun going for the start of the men’s 400m hurdles on Tuesday night, but none of them had been in an event shorter than 800m.