Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012, May 27, 1997, Page 16, Image 16

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    Mark Everett
(above) won the
800-meter dash in
a time of 1:44.99,
nearly a second in
front of Vincent
Malakwen, the next
closest competitor.
In the opening
event, Laban
Rotich led 11
runners under the
4-minute mark in
the mile run.
Rotich clocked a
world leading
3:52.68.
Photos by
Mark McTyre
Classic: Lewis pays last respects
■ Continued from Page 1
televised nationally on CBS, is an example
of that, Olympian Gail Devers said after win
ning the 100 with an 11.24-second effort.
“My goal and my wish is to have an Amer
ican circuit,” Devers said. “I believe it can
happen — I know it can happen. The Pre
fontaine is a testimony the fans are interest
ed in track and field and that they will come
out. Field of Dreams, the movie, said ‘If you
build it, they will come?’ Well, that’s us. We
just need somebody to open the gates and
say it’s okay for us to come in and compete
and we will do that.”
Billed as the greatest invitational track
and field meet ever by promoter Tom Jor
dan, the Prefontaine Classic didn’t disap
point, as four performances were the best in
the world this year.
Laban Rotich clocked the first of Sunday’s
top performances with a 3-minutes, 52.68
second performance in the men’s mile.
Mark Crear was next with a time of 13.18 in
the 110 hurdles, followed by Maria Muto
la’s 1:57.57 performance in the 800-meter
race, good for the meet record.
Bob Kennedy then shattered the meet
record in the 3,000-meter run — Steve Pre
fontaine’s race — with a 7:39.22 clocking.
“That’s how I race. I’m aggressive,”
Kennedy said. “I know that that tempo is
fast — 4:04 in the mile — but I’ve been
through in 3:58 so it’s not that quick forme. I
take pride in it, but it’s just keeping pace
with the rest of the world. ”
Four other performances were the best
U.S. marks recorded this year: Mark
Everett’s 1:44.99 effort in the 800, Connie
Price-Smith’s 62-11 shot put, Amy
Rudolph’s 8:59.95 mark in the 3,000 and In
ger Miller’s 22.73 clocking in the 200.
Johnson easily captured the 200 with a
20.17 performance, not enough for even a
meet record — which he set in 1995 — but
over two-tenths of a second better than Jon
Drummond.
“I needed to run a race to get tuned up,”
Johnson said. “It wasn’t like I needed to
come in here and run any particular time or
any particular kind of race. I just needed to
get a race in.”
Lewis, whose ailing Achilles tendon
caused him to pull out of the meet at the last
minute, was happy to at least make an ap
pearance in Eugene.
“Of course I didn’t get the chance to run
here ... but the fact that I was able to come
and see the people was worth it,” Lewis
said. “They are the ones that really make our
career ... so I feel very happy that I could
come and at least share myself with them
one last time.”
Many athletes agreed, regardless of the
state of track in the United States.
“It’s good to be appreciated,” Johnson
said. “This is a great place to run because it’s
a group of people who love track. ”
“I know that if I run here, I will be loved so
much and I will get all the power I need to
keep going,” said Mutola, who has lived in
Eugene since high school. “So, the fans help
me a lot in Eugene.”
“It’s always a great honor to come here —
the fans are very loud,” Devers said. “Y’all
said, ‘Ooh, it’s cold this morning,’ but peo
ple are filling the stands. And that’s a good
thing. I mean, we have to be here; they don’t
have to be here.”
“This track is good to me,” Crear said, re
calling his Pacific-10 Conference Champi
onship in 1992. “I love this track, I love the
people and I think it is good for the sport. ” i
Indeed, many athletes think meets like
the Pre Classic are needed now more than
ever.
“The atmosphere here is great,” said John
Godina, who won the discus. “You can’t get
this many people that care this much about
the sport and not have a great track meet.
This used to be the scene everywhere in the
country, but this is one of the cities that did
n’t let it get away. They staked their claim as
Track Town and they wouldn’t let go of it.”
“This is a big turnout,” sprinter Zundra
Feagin said, “and that is something you
don’t see at track and field meets in the
U.S.”
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