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| Asafa Powell |
EUGENE, Oregon, June 6, 2009 (AFP) - Former world record-holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica and 2009 world leader Churandy Martina of Netherlands Antilles will lead a star-studded 100-meter field at Sunday's Prefontaine Classic.
Olympic 100 and 200 champion Usain Bolt will be absent but so many of his top rivals will take the track at Hayward Field that the 100m final will be run in two sections.
Powell, who helped Jamaica win Olympic 4x100 relay gold, will be tested by Martina, who won in Hengelo this week in a season-best 9.97 seconds, plus Olympic runner-up Richard Thompson from Trinidad and Tobago and a top US trio.
Walter Dix, third in the 100 and 200 at Beijing, and Travis Padgett have each clocked 10.00 this season with Michael Rodgers, who won last week in New York, on 10.01. Powell had a wind-aided 10.10 seconds at New York.
Jamaican standouts Michael Frater and Nesta Carter plus 2004 Olympic 200m runner-up Bernard Williams are among those in the other championship heat.
The stadium, which later this month will host the US Track and Field Championships that determine berths in the World Championships, saw spectacular 100 efforts last year from US star Tyson Gay.
Gay ran a wind-aided 9.68 seconds at the 2008 US Olympic trials, the fastest 100-meter time ever clocked under any conditions, and also set an American record of 9.77 seconds in a wind-legal race.
The women’s 100 features Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser and runner-up Kerron Stewart of Jamaica against US stars Carmelita Jeter, Muna Lee, Lauryn Williams and defending meet champion Torri Edwards.
The women's 400 features defending meet champion and Beijing bronze medalist Sanya Richards facing Olympic silver medalist Shericka Williams and Novlene Williams of Jamaica, Russians Yuliya Gushchina and Anastasia Kapachinskaya and African champion Amantle Montsho of Botswana.
The meet also features a men's 300m race, set to pull in the best from 200 and 400 meters. It will feature US stars including Olympic 400m champion LaShawn Merritt, 400m bronze medalist David Neville, 200m runner-up Shawn Crawford and Wallace Spearmon, the 300m indoor world record holder.
Reigning 1,500 and 5,000 world champion Bernard Lagat will run the 3,000 after winning the two-mile Pre title last year, with Kenya's 5,000m Olympic runner-up Eluid Kipchoge and countryman Moses Masai favored.
Kenya's Alfred Yego, third at Beijing, defends his 800m meet crown against Sudan's Ahmad Ismail, the Beijing 800m runner-up; Canada's Gary Reed, fourth at the Olympics, and 2004 Olympic winner Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia.
Olympic 800m champion Pamela Jelimo and Beijing runner-up Janeth Jepkosgei give kenya a 1-2 punch on the women's race and Olympic winner Nancy Lagat gives Kenya the 1,500 favorite as well.
Kenyans Haron Keitany and Asbel Kiprop, the Olympic runner-up, will be tested by US Olympic flag bearer Lopez Lomong and countryman Leonel Manzano, a winner last week in New York.
Two-time Olympic 400 hurdles champion Angelo Taylor, reigning world champion Kerron Clement and 2005 world champion Bershawn Jackson will try to reproduce a US podium sweep from Beijing.
Olympic shot put champion Tomasz Majewski of Poland will be tested by a top US trio - Beijing runner-up and world indoor champion Christian Cantwell, two-time Olympic runner-up Adam Nelson and 2007 world champion Reese Hoffa.
Olympic long jump champion Irving Saladino of Panama, Olympic women's hammer throw champion Oksana Mankova of Belarus and Olympic women's discus champion Stephanie Brown Trafton of the United States will be favorites in their events.
The Beijing men's high jump podium will be on hand with champion Andrey Silnov and third-place Russian countryman Yaroslav Rybakov joined by British runner-up Germaine Mason. |
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