Yesterday was the first day of the Prefontaine Classic 2011 in Eugene, Oregon. Today, June 4, was the main day with about a couple of dozen events. Things kicked off with a powerful rendition of the national anthem. First up was the women's pole vault followed by the women's triple jump. Below is the lineup for the triple jump event which was eventually won by Olha Saladukha of Ukraine as a gift to herself for her birthday which was today.
If two events are boring, you can always wait a bit and soon enough you'll see a third or fourth event. All at the same time. A good exercise in multitasking your eyes and brain. Below is the lineup for the men's discus event. Robert Harting of Germany won with a 68.40m throw.
The women's shot put (lineup in photo below) was won by Nadezhda Ostapchuk with a 20.59 effort.
While the field events were in progress, the international men's mile kicked off. Ryan Gregson of Australia won with a strong finishing kick and finished in 3:53.86. Eight of the total nine runners in the race finished in sub-4 times.
As soon as the mile finished, hurdles were put up by the officials. Not the bad kind, but the good kind and for a good purpose - the men's 3000m steeplechase. Below is a photo of some of the runners on their way. Ezekiel Komboi of Kenya won in a time of 8:08.34 beating Paul Koech, the current meet record holder, by well over a second.
This was followed by the women's 400m hurdles. Lashinda Demus (seen below) won with a 53.31s effort. Next was the men's 800m. Abubaker Kaki of Sudan (not shown) won in blistering time of 1:43.68 thereby setting a new meet record.
The men's high jump took to orbit while the track events continued. The eventual winner was Raul Spank of Germany with 2.32m. Below is the lineup.
While the high jumpers continued, the women's 1500m event started. There were some good headwinds at points during the race and the meet record (or any other record) was pretty safe. There was some incident that happened around 150m away from the finish where there seemed to be some tripping but I wasn't able to catch a good glimpse as it was half way across the field. Here's a shot of Gelete Burka battling with Maryam Jamal on the final straightaway. Burka won in 4:04.63. Morgan Uceny finished third.
Here's Burka after her victory.
The women's javelin was won by Christina Obergfull with a 65.48m effort. Here's a shot of the lineup.
The men's long jump was won by Greg Rutherford of England with a 8.32m jump. Irving Saladino of Panama failed to complete a single legal jump. You could see the frustration on his face even from afar. It just wasn't his day. Here's the lineup before they started.
The men's 100m hurdles was looked forward to by the Chinese segment of the crowd as seen in the photo below. The placard translates to "Liu Zhang, go for it". This was the second time for Zhang at the PreClassic, if I remember correctly. The last time which was a couple of years ago, he got disqualified for a false start and that was a great anti-climax.
No such anti-climax this time. However, David Oliver decided he wanted first place, with a time of 12.94s beating Zhang by 6/100 of a second.
Next up was "Blade Runner" seen below, aka Oscar Pistorius of South Africa. Here he is lining up for the 400m race. Pretty darn impressive when you see him run like that in real life from 100 feet away. Watching it on TV is one thing but it's only when you see it in real life, you think a little bit beyond "Wow!"
Pistorius put up a good show but Angelo Taylor took the race in 45.16s followed closely by Jeremy Wariner. Pistorius finished last in a time of 46.33s.
After the 400m came the men's 2 mile race with a lineup of, among others, Bernard Lagat, Eliud Kipchoge, Tariku Bekele, Matt Tegenkamp. Here's a short of part of the lineup.
Here's another shot during the race. Meanwhile, Reese Hoffa won the men's shot put with a 21.65m effort and Hayward Field extended its record as the home of the most 70+ feet shot put throws.
Here's the 2 mile race again, this time in the final 100 meters with Lagat battling Koech. Lagat won comfortably in 8:13.62 and got a very loud round of applause. However that was nothing compared to the applause the last place finisher got. High school kid Lukas Verzbickas who finished about 16 seconds behind Lagat. If you didn't know, you'd have thought the applause was for Usain Bolt breaking 9.50s. The Eugene crowd is absolutely wonderful. No wonder Verzbickas is joining the University of Oregon in Eugene. He got interviewed by the presented Katherine Clark and came across as a shy but nice young kid. Hopefully Eugene and the PreClassic will see more of him.
Carmelita Jeter won the women's 100m with a 10.70s effort which was better than the meet record. However the wind had been pretty strong and I don't know if that has been ratified as a new record yet. Jeter also won the Maria Mutola award and here she is being interviewed by Katherine Clark, who did a great job throughout.
Below is the end of the men's 100m race. Steve Mullings of Jamaica won in 9.80s. Justin Gatlin finished 6th and he did get a good round of applause at the beginning of the race. No high is better than the runner's high.
Here's Mullings again. Happy as a bunny. A real fast bunny. This was followed by the women's 800m (not shown). Kenia Sinclair won in 1:58.29. Caster Semenya, making her first appearance in a while, ran a good race and finished second, about 0.59s behind. She was probably around fifth or sixth with about 200m to go before she kicked it up a level.
Here's a shot of the men's 200m in progress. Walter Dix won in 20.19s.
Another shot of Dix after he finished. Next was the women's 400m (not shown). Amantle Montsho won in 50.59s. Allyson Felix finished third and Sanya Richards Ross was fourth. There was a false start at the beginning and it seemed to be Felix. The guys sitting behind me were totally convinced it was Felix. I did see her leg move or twitch a bit but in the end, the officials decided to not charge it on any one. An official walked around to each athlete with a green card held up in her hand, apparently indicating that the athlete was good to go. A bit like the yellow and red card you see in soccer.
The final race of the day - the Bowerman mile. Below is a shot of the starting lineup. Haron Keitany of Kenya won in 3:49.09. Asbel Kiprop finished third after picking it up from fifth or sixth place with about a 100m to go.
Thus ended another great edition of the Pre Classic. Nice, warm, and sunny day in Eugene. About 75F. Of the five times I've been to the PreClassic, it's rained only once and that too at the very end. Who says it's always raining in Oregon?
If you're interested, you can read my write-ups from earlier years - 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007.
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