Our Sport Needed This Meet
by Mark Cullen
From Rudy Winkler’s eye-popping American record hammer throw to open the meet to Faith Kipyegon’s world record 1500m to close it, this was more than an epic celebration of track and field.
This was just what the doctor ordered.
For a sport that struggles for clear identity in a crowded world sports marketplace, this meet set the standard for what track and field can accomplish in a single day.
“This was a young crowd,” noted Bruce Mortensen, 1965 NCAA steeplechase champion for Oregon. Indeed, it appeared to be at the very least a substantial step in the direction of having track and field return to its multi-generational roots – a sport in which interest and enthusiasm are passed from one generation to the next.
I observed to my Oregon college roommate and his wife and daughter in a post-meet debrief that during the women’s 5,000m, “It felt like 1972 again.”
“Not that that is the goal,” I hastened to add. Instead, this meet harvested the best of ’72, with three distance stars – two of them already world record holders – hammering lap-by-lap, step-by-step late into the women’s 5,000m, with a sellout crowd of 12,606 cheering every stride. This was the degree of magic that has often been missing in recent years and even in recent meets.
Today, when our sport was firing on all cylinders, even the space fit the event.
No category of competition was immune to the magic.
On a day when talk of possible world records permeated the
stadium, Rudy Winkler (US) upset World and Olympic champion Ethan Katzberg
(Can) with a thunderous 3rd round 83.16 (272-10) to record the 2nd
American Record of his stellar hammer career. The mark was impressive and the
level of competition fierce; Katzberg was in the thick of it at 81.73 and the
issue was in doubt until the final throw.
This is also the farthest throw in the history of the Prefontaine Classic – a Pre Classic and Diamond League record to boot.
But not the best performance of the day! How about those two world records and an oh-so-close third?
The women’s 5,000m produced a sub-four of its own – sub
four-teen, that is, as Beatrice Chebet set a barrier breaking distance world record
at Hayward Field for the second time. Last year she was the first under 29:00
for 10,000m; this year she was pressed to the last 200m of 5,000m before
breaking away to dip under 14:00 in 13:58.06.
Doing the pressing were Agnes Ngetich who was third most of the way and second at the finish in 14:01.29, with former 5k world record holder Gudaf Tsegay 3rd in 14:04.41.
"Hayward Field is good for me," said Chebet, in quite an understatement.
"When I was coming here to Eugene, I was coming to prepare to run a world record, and I said I have to try. I said if Faith is trying, why not me? And today, I'm so happy because I've achieved being the first woman to run under 14. I'm so happy for myself," said Chebet.
"Discipline and hard work, my coach and my husband have been there assisting me in everything I'm doing in training and supporting me, and Faith has been a close friend to me."
In a nod to the prominence that Faith Kipyegon has as an international star of the highest caliber, the men’s Bowerman mile was moved from final to second-to-last event in favor of the women’s 1500m. The table was set for Kipyegon to attempt a 1500m world record, and she ordered in.
Kipyegon, who in a press conference the day before said, “Track is my business,” was all business today as she smashed her own world record with a delirium-inducing 3:48.68.
It’s tough competition when Diribe Welteji finishes second in 3:51.44 and that is ‘only’ her personal best and almost three seconds distant from the win.
"For them to follow me, it feels so great that they are pushing me as well to break records. These ladies are amazing, I love them. I love competing with them and I normally tell them, let's push each other and we can still break barriers."
In a day of understatements by the world greatest runners, Kipyegon said, "This is the road to Tokyo (World Championships) and I would say I am in the right direction."
Not to be outdone, the women’s steeplechasers put on a show
of their own with five under the 9:00 minute barrier for the first time in an event-changing race.
Winfred Javi set a meet record of 8:45.25, missing the world record by less
than a second. Surely it will be under 8:40 before the season is over.
Chase Jackson missed breaking her week-old American record in the women’s shot put by just one centimeter; remarkably, the top 5 all broke 20.00 meters Notably, Jackson had 6 fair throws – a terrific series of 19.39/19.89/20.94/19.86/20.34/19.39.
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden continued her stellar ’25 season with a 10.75-10.77 100m win over defending Olympic Champion Julien Alfred. With Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith 3rd in 10.90, this certainly was a preview of September’s World Championship final.
Ever since Tobi Amusan's 100m hurdles world record of 12.12 on the last day of the Eugene World Championships, we have become used to a new normal in women's hurdles times. Amusan was second here today in a swift 12.38, with Ackera Nugent winning in a speedier 12.32. Keni Harrison, the world record holder at 12.20 before Amusan, was 3rd today in 12.50 at the age of 33.
Valarie Allman continued her domination of the discus with a 70.68 Pre Meet record, with the rest of the competition almost 3 meters behind. Also setting a Pre Meet record was Canada’s Camryn Rogers, whose 78.88 is not only the Pre Classic and Diamond League record, but the Canadian national record as well.
Tara Davis-Woodhall and husband Hunter Woodhall, the Paris Olympics’ golden couple, were 1st and 2nd in their respective events here. Woodhall was second in the men’s wheelchair T62/T64 event, while Davis-Woodhall put on an electrifying performance in the long jump with a come-from-behind final jump to win by six centimeters over Germany’s two-time Olympic champion, Malaika Mihambo, 7.07-7.01.
Not all gold glittered as much as hoped, as Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s attempt oto break the 400m American record fell short. Her 49.43 left her chase of Sanya Richard-Ross’ AR 48.70 in the ‘ongoing’ category, but kudos to her for putting herself on the line in what is her second-best event.
Alison dos Santos and Rai Benjamin fought another memorable battle over the 400m hurdles with times of 46.65 and 46.71, the 4th and 5th fastest in history.
The top 5 men’s shot putters all threw over 22 meters with Joe Kovacs notching the win at 22.48 in a close and exciting competition; 2nd-5th were separated by only 7 centimeters. Shades of the 2019 Doha Worlds, when the top 3 finished within 1 cm of each other.
19 year old Biniam Mehary won the men's Kenyan Olympic Trials 10,000m in 26:43.82, 2/100ths ahead of Berihu Aregawi.
By comparison, Diamond League 800m leader Tsige Duguma’s .06 win over Prudence Sekgodisco is positively cavernous. Her 1:57.10 got the job done, by 6/100ths, while stat nuts will revel in the fact that, with Halimah Nakaayi third, the top 3 finishers in Eugene match their current 1-2-3 standings in the Diamond League.
Jamaica's Olympic silver medalist Kishane Thompson won the men's 100m with apparent ease in 9.85 over Zharnel Hughes, who was second in 9.85. In spite of his ungainly side-to-side movement, Thompson remains a legitimate threat to Noah Lyles as the world's best 100m sprinter.
If only Botswana’s 200m Olympic champion, Letsile Tebogo, hadn’t eased up so much at the line, his 19.76 winner might well have approached his African record of 19.46. Meanwhile, Matthew Hudson-Smith led another hit parade of deep finishes with his 44.10 400m win, with the top 7 44.80 or faster.
Perhaps Armand Duplantis has put himself in the position of disappointing fans when he does not set a world record, but his 6.0m pole vault clearance left him comfortably ahead of Sam Kendricks and Austin Miller, both at 5.80 with Kendricks ahead of Miller on the countback.
Newly minted world record holder and new Oregon Duck, Mykolas Alekna, a transfer from Cal, won the men’s discus with a throw of 70.97m. The only item deserving of a standing ovation that didn’t get one was the NCAA transfer portal.
If you’re unfamiliar with the difference between the Pre Classics’ International mile and the Bowerman Mile, think of the International as the junior varsity race and the Bowerman as varsity.
Nathan Strand won the first mile in 3:48.86, with the top 3 under 3:50.
Yared Nuguse was well on his way to becoming the first American to win the Bowerman Mile, except that no one had handed 20-year-old Dutch prodigy Niels Laros that script.
Laros led for exactly one step of the race – if that. He surged down the final straightaway to nip Nuguse at the line and win by 1/100th of a second, 3:45.94 – 3:45.95. The stats of this race make the miling I once knew a dim and distant memory, as Ollie Hoare finished 15th and last in 3:51.60. Hello?
While the time standards have changed irrevocably, the
competition hasn’t. As long as two of the best milers in the world are
separated by a step at the finish, it doesn’t matter if it’s 1972 or 2025. It’s
the competitions, the competitors, and their fierce, disciplined commitment to winning that drives them here
every year – and 12,606 acolytes as well.
The question that is begged by the success of this year’s Pre Classic is: where do we go from here? How do we consolidate these gains and incorporate them not only into next year’s Pre Classic, but into national and international track and field as well?
How can we fill the stadium each and every time?
Special thanks to the Diamond League for permission to use both the photos of and quotes by Ruth Chebet and Faith Kipyegon.
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