Valerie Adams of New Zealand competes in the Women's Shot Put final on Day 10 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium on August 6, 2012 (© Getty Images)
New Zealand’s London 2012 Olympic Games Shot Put champion Valerie Adams is the latest star to confirm she will be competing at the Prefontaine Classic, an IAAF Diamond League meeting, which will be held at Eugene’s historic Hayward Field on 31 May and 1 June.
Meeting organisers announced on Wednesday (3) that the three-time IAAF World Championships Shot Put gold medallist Adams, who went undefeated in 2012, will be up against the London silver and bronze medallists: Russia’s Yevgeniya Kolodko and China’s Lijiao Gong.
Also in the event will be the American duo of Jill Camarena-Williams and Michelle Carter, two of the three longest American putters in history, with Camarena-Williams co-holder of the US record.
Two more 2012 Olympic Games Shot Put finalists have also been confirmed: China’s Xiangrong Liu and Russia’s Irina Tarasova.
The women’s Hammer Throw not only has a complete set of Olympic medallists from London, it can boast of the complete set from the 2008 Beijing Games as well.
Russia: Tatyana Lysenko, Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk and Germany’s World record holder Betty Heidler was the trio who climbed the podium in London, winning gold, silver and bronze respectively.
Lysenko and Wlodarczyk are both former World record holders and also winners of the last World Championships gold medals.
The Beijing trio of medallists are: Belarus’s Oksana Menkova, Cuba’s Yipsi Moreno and China’s Wenxiu Zhang. They will be joined by US throwers Jessica Cosby and Amber Campbell, the former setting the current US record at last year’s Pre Classic.
The Pre Classic women’s hammer is, for the first time, part of the IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge. This is also the first time that a meeting in the USA will be part of the IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge.
The main names in two other field events have been previously announced and both the men’s High Jump and Pole vault will feature a complete sweep of Olympic medallists from London last summer.
Organisers for the IAAF
2013 IAAF Diamond League Calendar
Doha, QAT – 10 May
Shanghai, CHN – 18 May
New York, USA – 25 May
Eugene, USA – 31 May-1 Jun
Rome, ITA – 6 Jun
Oslo, NOR – 13 Jun
Birmingham, GBR – 30 Jun
Lausanne, SUI – 4 Jul
Paris, FRA – 6 Jul
Monaco, MON – 19 Jul
London, GBR – 26-28 Jul
Stockholm, SWE – 22 Aug
Zürich, SUI – 29 Aug
Brussels, BEL – 6 Sep
