Men
continued from page 9
“I’d have preferred to get the Amer
ican record to 3:45 or 3:46 or some
thing like that, where no one else
could even get close,” El Guerrouj
said.
What was equally record-breaking
in the mile was prep sensation Alan
Webb’s time of 3:53.43, which broke
Jim Ryun’s 36-year-old high school
record by two seconds.
“I felt good the whole time,” Webb
said. “I wanted this record. I ran great
splits; I knew I was on pace.”
Two laps into the mile, it didn’t ap
pear that any records would be bro
ken — American, meet or high
school. The race’s pace setters were
ahead by too many strides to be effec
tive and Webb sat in last place.
“The pace setters went out a little
too fast,” El Guerrouj said. “To be able
to run a 3:49 without pace setters is
pretty good.”
Webb wasn’t deterred by his situa
tion with 800 meters to go either.
“I knew the pace would be fast,”
Webb said. “I just stayed in contact
and played conservative. I waited un
til 300 to go, then poured on the gas. ”
El Guerrouj was pleased with the
turnout at Hayward Field.
“This is the first time I’ve seen a
public that understands athletics so
profoundly,” he said. “The public de
serves a great performance. I’d like to
promise the crowd that I’ll be back
next year to break the world record. ”
Twelve runners in the mile field
broke the legendary four-minute bar
rier, only one runner shy of the meet
record, set in 1995.
A major coup occurred in the
men’s 100 meters, which featured the
“world’s fastest man” in Maurice
Greene, who had been undefeated at
the Pre since 1998. After a controver
sial false start disqualified Canadian
Bruny Surin, Jamaican Patrick Jarrett
and Olympian Tim Montgomery
edged Greene by .03 seconds.
It was later determined that Jarrett
left his starting blocks 0.042 seconds
before the starting gun, which proved
to be the difference between him,
Montgomery and Greene.
“Jarrett was two steps ahead of
me,” said Olympian Jon Drummond,
who finished fifth. “That had to be a
false start. Those were two blatant,
powerful ‘you-ain’t-catching-me’
steps.”
“I didn’t feel anything,” Jarrett said.
“The first false start was a blur. I did
n’t hear anything. The second time,
same thing.”
Jarrett’s time of 9.89 seconds will
not enter the Prefontaine record
books due to a wind reading of 3.7
meters per second, 1.7 over the allow
able mark.
That same wind had an adverse ef
fect on the 800 meters. A loaded in
ternational field had its eyes set on
the meet record of 1:44.6, set by John
ny Gray in 1996. But a strong head
wind on the east straightaway threw
off the pace of many runners.
Burundi’s Patrick Nduwimana
came close to Gray’s record, winning
in a time of 1:44.9. The Olympic
semifinalist surged ahead of the pace
setters with 350 meters to go, running
splits of 54, then 50 seconds.
“The wind was pretty bad on the
back stretch,” Nduwimana said. “I
can’t complain. At the 200 [meters to
go] mark I saw it was 1:17, and I knew
I was going to be 1:45.1 wasn’t too
worried about time.”
Following the 100 meters, the mile
and the 800 meters, the rest of the
meet was a little, well, ho-hum.
Meet record-holder Luke Kipkos
gei defended his title in the 5,000 me
ters by out-kicking teammates
Leonard Mucheru, Abraham Chebii
and American record-holder Bob
Kennedy. Kipkosgei was six seconds
off his meet record with a time of
13:13.
Olympic silver-medalist Terrence
Trammell won the 110 hurdles in a
time of 13.34 seconds.
The only men’s event inside the
oval — the discus — was won by
Lithuanian Virgilijus Alekna on his
final throw of220 feet, 5 inches.
The cast of world-class athletes
will now travel to Athens for the nexL
installment of the Grand Prix track
and field series.
. Women
continued from page 9
“I knew this was going to be one
of my toughest races ever,” Favor
Hamilton said. “To win it here is
overwhelming.”
Favor Hamilton erased the mem
ory of her Olympic fall and a close
loss in last year’s Pre Classic 1,500
with an easy victory. After running
the race in 4:06.93, nearly three
seconds faster than second-place
Lyudmila Vasilyeva of Russia, Fa
vor Hamilton threw her arms up in
triumph as the Hayward Field
crowd gave her a standing ovation.
Maria Mutola was another ath
lete with ties to Eugene who tri
umphed Sunday. Mutola, a native
of Mozambique who lives and
trains in Eugene, beat out a field in
the 800 that included her own sis
ter-in-law, and she ran the fastest
time in the world this year.
Mutola has competed in 11
straight Pre Classic meets, and she
hasn’t lost since her first attempt at
the Pre back when she was a high
school student in Springfield.
“I always know the Eugene fans
are behind me,” Mutola said. “I’m
really happy to know that things
are going so well.”
Marla Runyan completed the tri
fecta of Eugene distance winners.
Runyan, a Eugene resident, easily
won the 3,000 with a kick over the
last lap that put her ahead of Kathy
Butler by two seconds.
Runyan said she was slightly
disappointed about not breaking
the Pre Classic record, but she en
joyed the meet all the same.
“To win at the Pre touches my
heart,” Runyan said. “I knew the
meet record wasn’t going to hap
pen today, so I just tried to run as
hard as I could and get the win.”
Even if the local athletes stole the
Pre Classic spotlight, some world
class Olympians caught a piece of
Sunday’s action as well.
In the 100 hurdles, American
hurdling star Gail Devers lost to Ja
maica’s Deloreen Ennis-London in
the day’s closest race. Ennis-Lon
don’s time of 12.68 seconds was
only .01 seconds faster than Dev
ers’ time.
The biggest star to compete Sun
day, Marion Jones, won her event
with a whimper instead of the usu
al bang. “The world’s fastest
woman” won the 200 in 22.26 sec
onds, but her time was thrown out
because of wind. She beat Ja
maica’s Juliet Campbell by .49 sec
onds for her fourth straight Pre
Classic victory.
In two field events that lasted al
most all afternoon, Americans
Amy Acuff and Stacy Dragila out
shone their foreign competition to
win the high jump and pole vault,
respectively. Dragila jumped half a
foot higher than her nearest com
petitor in the vault, and nearly
broke her own world record with
three attempts at 15 feet, 51/2 inch
es. Her winning mark was 15-11/2,
a meet record.
“I jumped really well this week,”
Dragila said. “I felt good.”
Acuff beat out the world’s top
high jumper, Sweden’s Kajsa
Bergqvist, with a final leap of 6-6.
Acuff also beat out some personal
demons on the high jump runway.
Acuff rushed from Hayward Field
after her event to catch a plane for
Chicago, where she attended the
funeral of her grandmother, Lor
raine Ward.
“I’ve had a rough couple days,”
Acuff said. “My mind’s kind of
been in different places. I feel like
[Ward] was here with me today.”
Acuff’s emotional, gutsy per
formance typified the 2001 install
ment of the Prefontaine Classic,
where those with the most heart, it
seemed, came out ahead.
Webb
continued from page 9
Webb’s current coach, Scott
Raczka of South Lakes High
School, said he was impressed by
Webb’s performance.
“He’s obviously very sharp
right now,” Raczka said. “He’s
able to shift gears as good as any
one. And he showed that today.”
Webb will shift into another
mode, as he did Sunday, as die en
ters the collegiate ranks this fall
and looks to put American dis
tance running back on the map —
as the legendary Prefontaine did
in the early ’70s.
“I wanted that high school
record,” Webb said. “I didn’t
know if I had it in me today, but I
wanted to set myself up if I did.
“To compete at this level is
very special. I’m excited to see
what I can do at the next level.”
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