World records in track and field aren’t set every day.
Two might be set in an hour at Sunday’s Prefontaine Classic.
In a pair of races added to the meet, Ethiopians Kenenisa Bekele and Meseret Defar will be going after their own world records in the men’s 10,000 meters and the women’s 5,000m, respectively.
In order to give the pair ideal weather conditions, meet director Tom Jordan set them up for 9:30 a.m.
“We compiled 20 years of data about wind conditions, humidity, temperature – you name it,” Jordan said in a press release. “The conditions are slightly better during the morning than the evening, and Kenenisa will have the thousands of Hayward Field fans behind him.”
Bekele, the 2004 Olympic champion at the distance, will be going after his three-year old mark of 26 minutes, 17.53 seconds. “The record is not easy,” Bekele’s representative Jos Hermens said in the release. “But this is an absolutely serious attempt. His training is going well, and he is 100 percent ‘go’ for the record.”
Defar, also a 2004 Olympic champion, will attempt to better her year-old record of 14:16.63. Her attempt will begin immediately after Bekele’s race ends.
The rest of the meet isn’t bad either.
Starting at 12:30 p.m., the 19 other events will, as usual for a Pre Classic, feature numerous world No. 1s, Olympic champions and world champions.
Former Duck Tommy Skipper will be among the challengers to 2007 world champion Brad Walker in the men’s pole vault, while fellow Oregon alum Britney Henry will take on another world champion, Betty Heidler of Germany, in the women’s hammer throw.
Returning to defend his title from the 2007 Pre Classic will be Oregon Track Club Elite’s Nick Symmonds in the men’s 800m. Symmonds thrilled the crowd last year when he ran down 2004 Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy in the home stretch. Matt Scherer, another former Duck, is also entered in the race.
Duck recruit Luke Puskedra will make his first appearance at Hayward Field in an attempt to break the national high school two-mile record of 8:36.3, set by Jeff Nelson in 1979.
Maria Mutola will be making her final appearance at the Pre Classic seeking her 16th consecutive victory at the meet in the women’s 800m. Mutola, who attended Springfield High School, is retiring this year and will have her No. 1 bib number retired in a ceremony at the end of the meet, when the first Maria Mutola Outstanding Athlete Award will be presented.
Bridging the gap between the elite events will be a series of races geared toward allowing athletes to meet qualifying times in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase and the men’s and women’s 800m and 1,500m races.
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