Strictly speaking, Saturday’s Bowerman Mile at the Prefontaine Classic was one of the fastest races in the event’s 49-year history.
The storyline has also been added, making it one of the most anticipated works.
This mile features seven athletes with lifetime best times of over 3 minutes 50 seconds, Olympic and World Championship gold medalists, world record holders, and rivals who have been joking with each other for months before meeting each other. teeth, wonder diamond league At Hayward Field, the chances of achieving world-class results go far beyond the final competition.
First, let’s consider the women’s 800m. This event offers an early chance to qualify for this summer’s Olympics. Six of the eight athletes who competed in last year’s World Championship final in Budapest are listed, including gold medalist Mary Mora and silver medalist Keely Hodgkinson. Notably absent is Olympic gold medalist and bronze medalist Ashing Mu. She was originally scheduled to compete, but due to hamstring pain she withdrew as a precaution.
Also entered are 2019 World Championship silver medalist Raevyn Rogers, whose portrait hangs in the tower above Hayward Field, as well as Gemma Leakey, Nia Akins and Halima Nakaai, who just won the USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix.
In the women’s 100m, world champions Shakari Richardson and Elaine Thompson-Hera led the way along with world indoor 60m champions Julianne Alfred and Marie-Josee Ta Rou-Smith, while world indoor 60m champions Christian Coleman and Akeem Blake were among the fastest runners in the event.
Perhaps the most promising athlete coming into the meet is 110m hurdles world champion Grant Holloway, who has won all 10 races he has competed in this year, including the indoor season and heats, including winning in a world-leading 13.07 seconds in a headwind last weekend in Atlanta.
The three-time world champion’s last defeat came at last September’s Prefontaine Classic, on that very same Hayward Field track. The only remaining gap on Holloway’s resume is an Olympic gold medal, and Saturday’s race could be an early preview of the Paris Games because the field includes five athletes who competed in last summer’s world championship final in Budapest, including silver medalist Hansl Parchment and bronze medalist Daniel Roberts.
Shot put world record holder and multiple world and Olympic champion Ryan Crowther will open the outdoor season at his home stadium, where he holds the facility record, aiming to beat Leonardo Fabbri’s world-leading record of 22.95 meters.
Since 2023, Krauser has only lost in the final once, at the Prefontaine Classic in September, and will compete again against Joe Kovacs, who won with 22.93 meters in Los Angeles last weekend. Peyton Otterdahl, who is ranked No. 3 in the world this year, will also be participating.
There’s no shortage of world-class medallists in these events, but few races promise as much drama as the mile.
For the past year, Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr, who competed for the world title in Budapest last year, have been arguing in the press over who will win in Paris.
Commonwealth champion Ollie Hoare, who is competing after winning the 1,500 meters in Los Angeles last week, said all the attention on the Ingebrigtsen-Kerr battle has made the sport better, but added that others want to give due respect to competitors such as Yared N’Guse, who battled to the finish with Ingebrigtsen (4:43.73) in September’s Pre-Classic, running a personal best of 3:43.97.
“This is a big thing. This is going to be a big challenge for a lot of egos,” Hoare said in Los Angeles. “But I think this is a big race for me because it’s the first race where I know where I stand against the best in the world. You can roll around in jokes a little bit, but you can’t take the field lightly. If you do, you’ll be eaten alive.”
Notably absent from the list of seven people with sub-3:50 times, including Hoare, is Jake Wightman, who will compete with Ingebrigtsen for the first time since winning gold at the 2022 world championships in Oregon; Abel Kipsang, who placed fourth at the Tokyo Olympics; Jordie Beamish, less than three months after winning the world indoor championships; and steeplechase world record holder Ramecha Girma, who will be competing in his mile debut.
“Jake Wightman is back. He’s a world champion,” Hoare said. “Yared Nguse, 3:43 miles – They stay silent and wait for an opportunity to attack. And when they strike, I guarantee you they will comment.”
They weren’t the only big names to enter from afar.
Athletics Kenya decides the men’s and women’s Olympic 10,000m qualifiers at Hayward Field, with Kenya’s two-time cross-country world champion Beatrice Chebet becoming world leader in the 5,000m this season and world champion in the women’s race. will be joined by Gudav Tsegay. Ethiopia, eight months after Tsegay set a 5000m world record on the same course.
World record holder Beatrice Chepkoech will try to maintain control of the steeplechase as she races against top challenger Faith Cherotic. The Kenyan duo ran the world’s fastest two times at the Diamond League meet in Xiamen this year, with Chepkoech winning in 8:55.40 to Cherotic’s 9:05.91. Olympic silver medallist Courtney Frerichs will not be racing any more after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in her right knee.
A week after her victory in Los Angeles, Diribe Weltej led the way in a 1,500-meter event that included 13 women who ran under four minutes. Elle St-Pierre, the world indoor 3000m champion who won the 5000m in Los Angeles, ran her first 1500m of the season, and Laura Muir, Nikki Hiltz, Jessica Hull, Hilt Mechesha and Cory McGee were also entered.
Multiple World Championship and Olympic gold medallist Sifan Hassan and world number two Ejigaif Taiyeh will compete in the 5,000m.
In athletics, world and Olympic pole vault champion Katie Moon opens the outdoor season against Sandy Morris, while the triple jump will feature four of this season’s top five women, led by Thea Lafont, who won the world title indoors with 15.01m. The Glasgow title remains a mark to be broken.
Olympic discus champion Valarie Allman hasn’t lost in Eugene in the last two years and reached the Diamond League final in September. That could change Saturday with the presence of world leader Yaime Perez, who finished second to Allman in Xiamen last month.
The men’s 200 meters will pit America’s top sprinters against each other at the Olympic Trials in a few weeks. Kenny Bednarek, who just set a world-leading time of 19.67 seconds at the Doha Games, will face world No. 2 Courtney Lindsay (19.71 seconds), while world silver medalist Elyon Knighton will make her season debut. Joe Fanbulle and Los Angeles Grand Prix 100m winner Kylie King are also entered.
Another Los Angeles winner, Rai Benjamin, was the star of the men’s 400m hurdles and will go into the event with a fair bit of confidence after clocking 46.64 seconds, the ninth-fastest time ever.
“Honestly, I think I’m the fastest guy in the field,” Benjamin said of his Olympic chances.
The women’s 100m hurdles and hammer throw do not count toward the Diamond League points total, but are more likely to serve as bellwethers for the World Championships.
The female athletes, who ranked fifth out of the six fastest times this year, will face off in the hurdle competition with only a one-second difference between them. Tonea Marshall, who just won in Los Angeles in 12.42 seconds, beat 2019 world champion Nia Ali, Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho Quinn, two-time world champion Danielle Williams and world indoor champion Devin Charlton. Leading.
Brooke Andersen’s 79.92-meter throw from earlier this month remains the best in the world this season, but she will challenge the likes of world champion Kamryn Rogers, 2019 world champion Deanna Price, and world silver medalist Janie Casana-Boyd. will be done. season.
Andrew Greif at the World Championships