Comfortable and relaxed, Jeremy Wariner cruises to a sizzling 44.02 victory in Osaka (© Kazutaka Eguchi/Agence SHOT)
Asafa Powell is the World record holder in the 100m and Jeremy Wariner is the reining World and Olympic 400m gold medalist.
Who’s faster at 200m will be determined in the Prefontaine Classic at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field on Sunday.
It’s also possible that the Powell-Wariner duel could be upstaged by X-Man” Xavier Carter and Wallace Spearmon, who have run 19.63 and 19.65 in the 200m and rank second and third on the all-timer performers list, and defending Olympic champion Shawn Crawford.
The 200m will be among the intriguing match-ups in the IAAF World Athletics Tour Grand Prix meeting meet named after American distance runner Steve Prefontaine, who died in an automobile accident at the age 24 in 1975.
The start lists includes World record holders Kenenisa Bekele and Liu Xiang and World champions Christian Cantwell, Allen Johnson, Michelle Perry and Maria Mutola as well as the season debut of IAAF World Athlete of the Year Sanya Richards.
U.S. Outdoor debut for Bekele
The Pre Classic will mark the outdoor U.S. debut for Bekele, the 5000m and 10,000m World record holder, who will run in the two mile.
The eight-lap race will also mark the first race between Bekele and Zersenay Tadesse of Eritiea since the World Cross Country Championships in March. Tadesse ended Bekele’s bid for an unprecedented sixth World title in a row after running to victory in the heat and humidity of Mombasa when Bekele pulled off the course on the final circuit.
Bekele timed 8:13.51 in the two mile in Hengelo on 26 May and could challenge the meet record of 8:07.51 pushed by a field that includes Kenya’s Ben Limo and Australia’s Craig Mottram, the 2007 World leaders at 5000m and 10,000m respectively, and Bekele’s younger brother Tariku Bekele who ran a World leading 13:04.05 at 5000m at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York City on 2 June.
Alan Webb who set an American record of 8:11.48 is a late addition, to join American compatriots Matt Tegenkamp, Adam Goucher and Dathan Ritzenhein.
Xiang and Perry head Hurdle fields
The 110m Hurdles and women’s 100m Hurdles will feature World Record holder Xiang and 2005 World champion Michelle Perry.
Xiang will face Dominique Arnold in a rematch of a historic race in Lausanne, Switzerland where the two ran 12.88 and 12.90 to dip under the previous World record. Xiang clocked 12.92 in the Reebok Grand Prix on 2 June in a race in which Arnold was disqualified for a false start.
After his New York win, Xiang has been training in Southern California at Mt. San Antonio College in preparation for Prefontaine.
Four-time World champion Allen Johnson, 2003 World champion Ladji Doucoure, Modesto Relays winner Anwar Moore, 2003 NCAA champion Ryan Wilson, Aries Merritt and David Oliver round out the field.
In the women’s hurdles, Perry is the defending champion and had the world’s fastest time of 2006 at 12.43 but will be challenged by training partner Ginnie Powell, who ran a 2007 world-leading 12.45 at the Reebok Grand Prix.
Lolo Jones, who finished second to Powell in New York in 12.75, was a winner in the Road to Eugene ’08 meet at Hayward Field on 27 May. Two-time defending Kansas Relays winner Nichole Denby, Jamaican Brigitte Foster-Hylton, 2003 World champion Perdita Felicien of Canada and Jenny Adams are also in the race.
Mutola looking for 15th Pre win
Mutola, 34, has the longest streak in Pre Classic history with 14 wins in a row but the former Eugene resident may receive her most difficult challenge during her streak in the women’s 800m from Janeth Jepkosgei of Kenya.
Jepkosgei, the 2006 Commonwealth Games champion, had the world’s fastest time last year at 1:56.66 and ran five times under Mutola’s current 2007 World leader of f 1:58.79 at the Road to Eugene meet.
Nicole Teter, who ran 1:59.91 in her first race back at the Road to Eugene meet after missing the end of the 2005 season and almost all of 2006 because of hernia surgery to finish second behind Mutola, will be among the U.S. entries with Alice Schmidt and Hazel Clark. Other entrants are Jamaica’s Kenia Sinclair, Canada’s Diane Cummins and Qing Liu of China.
Defending Olympic champion Yoriy Borzakovskiy of Russia is the top entrant in the men’s 800m that will include Khadevis Robinson, Nick Symmonds, Gary Reed and Alfred Yego.
Fastest Bowerman Mile field in meet history
The Bowerman mile, the traditional meet finale, will have eight runners who have run the mile or converted metric equivalent of 3:50.9 or faster headed by Kenyans Alex Kipchirchir and Daniel Komen and Kenyan-born American citizen Bernard Lagat.
Lagat (3:47.28) and Komen (3:48.49) have all run faster than the meet record of 3:49.92 - the fastest mile on American soil - set by Hicham El Guerrouj in 2001.
The eight-minute barrier in the steeplechase and the four-minute mark in the women’s 1500m may also be challenged.
In the steeplechase, which will be held at Pre for the first time since 1995, Paul Koech is the favourite. The 2004 Olympic bronze medallist has run under eighth minutes for the last four seasons, including a PB of 7:56.37. The field also includes Steve Slattery, Japanese record holder Yoshitaka Iwamizu, and 2006 NCAA champion, Josh McAdams.
In the women’s 1500m, Yulia Chizhenko-Fomenko of Russia will be after the first sub-four clocking in meet history as well as the meet record of 4:00.73. Chizhenko-Fomenko will face a field that includes Gelete Burka of Ethiopia, Americans Treniere Clement and Shayne Culpepper and Malinda Elmore of Canada.
Shalane Flanagan, who set an American 5000m record at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays and at 3000m indoors this season, and 2006 U.S. 5000m champion Lauren Fleshman will drop down to the metric mile.
Richards’ debut in 400m
Sanya Richards, who promised her debut at Pre at the Road to Eugene after her season opener was delayed again because of a flare up of a knee injury, is scheduled to face meet record holder Ana Guevara of Mexico and American compatriots Dee Dee Trotter and Monique Henderson.
Gary Kikaya, LaShawn Merritt, Michael Blackwood, Alleyne Francique and Tyler Christopher are part of a men’s 400m field that includes intermediate hurdlers Angelo Taylor and Bershawn Jackson.
Phillips and Saladino meet in Long Jump
Dwight Phillips, the defending World and Olympic champion, will face Irving Saladino of Panama in the Long Jump. Saladino has twice jumped over 8.50m this season and won 15 of 17 competitions in 2006.
Miguel Pate, Brian Johnson and Trevell Quinley will also jump in a field that includes World Triple Jump champion Walter Davis, decathlete Bryan Clay and collegiate record holder Trey Hardee.
A meet record is guaranteed in the inaugural women’s Prefontaine Triple Jump, headed by Hayward Field record holder Tiombe Hurd and Anastasiiya Zhuravleva of Uzbekistan – the first athlete from the country to compete at Pre.
No place like Home for Williams in High Jump
Jesse Williams, who recently moved to Eugene after graduating from USC, has had good fortune on the Hayward Field apron, winning the 2005 NCAA West Region title, the 2006 Pacific-10 Conference title and most recently, the Road to Eugene meet.
The 2005 and 2006 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor champion, though, could be fatigued from a red-eye flight from Virginia to Eugene on Saturday night where he is attending his sister’s wedding.
In the Pole Vault, Mexico’s Giovanni Lanaro has been among the hottest vaulters on the 2007 circuit with a national record at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays and wins at the Road to Eugene and Reebok Grand Prix.
Hoffa, Cantwell, Kreiner lead throws lineup
Christian Cantwell, the yearly World leader in the Shot Put, will face 2006 top-ranked Reese Hoffa in a competition that includes John Godina and Dan Taylor. The women’s javelin pits Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic against American record holder Kim Kreiner
Kirby Lee for the IAAF
As of 9 June, check start lists and results here
