Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Friday, May 23,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Pre Classic
Best bet
Prefontaine Classic
(tape delay)
11:00 a.m. Sunday, NBC
The big box
of Pre
Tasty morsel
no. 1
Think women’s pole vault
and the name Stacy Dragila
immediately comes to mind.
She holds the world and
American records at 15-9
1/4, as well as the Hayward
Field and Prefontaine records
at 15-5 3/4. But Dragila could
be challenged on Saturday by
Russian Svetlana Feofanova,
who will make her first ever
appearance on American soil.
Feofanova is the indoor world
record holder and recently
beat Dragila at the World
Indoor Championships.
Morsel no. 2
Keep an eye on the men’s
110 hurdles event.
The Hayward Field and
Prefontaine record holders
at 13.12 seconds, Larry
Wade and Mark Crear, return.
As if that wasn't enough,
former Duck Micah Harris
will line up against current
freshman Eric Mitchum.
Trivia bowl
Gail Devers is the American,
Hayward Field and
Prefontaine record holder
in the 100 hurdles, her fastest
time (12.33) coming in 2000.
What time did she run at last
year's Prefontaine?
Morsel no. 3
In what could be a repeat
of last year’s terrific
performance, Kevin Toth
and John Godina return
to the shot put ring. Toth
Is the Prefontaine record
holder after throwing 72-9
3/4 last year, and Godina
took third In the same event.
Quotable
“Overall, the women are
stronger than the men and it
has never been that way.” —
meet director Tom Jordan.
‘The Prefontaine meet is the
only place in the U.S. where
vou can see that kind of
j thup.”—Track and Field
News statistician Dan Lilot on
the women’s 400 meters.
Morsel no. 4
As usual, the entrants in this
year’s list are a “who’s-who” of
track and field competitors.
But It will also be about who .
won’t be there. Seven-time
winner Marion Jones will not
return, the same going for
distance star Marla Runyan.
Tim Montgomery initially
entered, but pulled out on
Wednesday, and Hicham El
Guerrouj will fail to compete
in Eugene for the first time
since 2000.
Trivia answer
Devers ran the 100 hurdles in
i 2.29. However, it didn't
count because the wind
reading was 2.7 — 0.7 more
than allowable. Still, it was
the fastest time in history
under any conditions.
v.vy v / . . . . .
Classic is a women’s meet in 2003
A star-studded women’s field should be the
main event at Saturday’s Prefontaine Classic
Jesse Thomas
Sports Reporter
Eleven minutes and 30 seconds after 2 p.m. Saturday,
all eyes will be on the northeast comer of Hayward field.
That’s 90 seconds after the start of the women’s 800
meters, and the northeast corner is where the athletes
will begin the final haul to see who can out-kick who in
this year’s star-studded field.
Mozambique’s Maria Mutola has 10 straight victories
in the Prefontaine Classic meet, more than any other ath
lete, understandable considering Track and Field maga
zine has ranked her No. 1 in the world the last five years
and eight times total.
“I’m sure she’ll break two minutes, which is always a
world-class time,” meet Director Tom Jordan said. “I want
to see someone challenging her in the home stretch.”
Jearl Miles Clark, World Champion at the 400 meters,
would love that opportunity. At age 36, Miles Clark has
bounced around between the two distances. She has 14
world rankings in both along with the national record in
the 800 of 1:56.40.
Last year, Miles Clark focused on the one-lap event, and
Track & Field News ranked her third in the world. In other
thirds, there is only one name holding the top three fastest
800 times ever run by an American — Jearl Miles Clark.
American Regina Jacobs is worthy of a shot to cross
the tape first after recording the first ever sub-four
minute indoor 1,500 meter race in February. Less than
a month later, Jacobs earned the gold at that distance in
the World Indoor Championships.
Jacobs’ list of accomplishments goes on to include being
the American recordholder at 1,000 meters and a No. 1
ranking in the U.S. in the 800 meters as recendy as 2001.
In other action, Suzy Favor Hamilton will return to
Hayward Field after missing last year’s competition for
a friend’s wedding. She will run the 1,500 meters, leav
ing the infamous Favor Hamilton-Jacobs battle for an
other year.
Favor Hamilton, a former Eugene native, was ranked
fourth in the world last year by Track and Field News
and has moved up to No. 3 on the IAAF World Rank
ings list for 2003.
“We’re happy to have her,” Jordan said. “She’s always
been a crowd favorite. Hopefully, she’ll be up front, fight
ing for the win.”
Yet the 1,500 could be far from an easy American
win as world indoor 800-meter recordholder Jolanda
Ceplak, from Slovenia, holds the 1,500 meter record of
Turn to Women's, page 7C
Emerald
Maria Mutola, formerly a Eugene resident, has participated in the Pre for years. She won this race in 1995.
All Cathy Freeman photos courtesy Victah@Photo Run
Cathy Freeman won the400 meters at the 1998 Prefontaine with a time of50.02.
Australian fur ‘fast’
Cathy Freeman has gone
from phenom to legend
since the last time she ran
at the Prefontaine Classic
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
She’s the Australian equivalent of
Michael Jordan.
Cathy Freeman, the gold medal
winner in the 400 meters at the
2000 Sydney Olympics, is as much
a star in her homeland as Jordan has
been to basketball fans for the last
two decades.
Freeman is ready to strut her stuff
at the 29th annual Prefontaine Clas
sic, as she returns to the meet for the
first time since 1998.
Freeman has a piece of history
on her side. She was the first Abo
riginal athlete to represent Aus
tralia at the Olympics.
“It doesn’t take much for me to be
reminded of how I affect people,”
she told the San Francisco Chroni
cle earlier this month. “When I think
about the connections I make with
people, it causes me to be emotional
— I’m definitely proud of who I am
and where I’m from. I represent dif
ferent things to people. It’s the inter
pretations you take away that mean
the most. I’m definitely proud to be
an Australian.”
Freeman, 30, is well-known in
Australia, especially after bringing
112,000 fans to their feet as she
outraced the world in the 2000
Olympics. Just before that, she had
been seen as the lucky soul that got
to light the Olympic torch, seen by
tens of millions of viewers across
the globe.
On her best days, Freeman has
been clocked in the 400 at 48.63
seconds, despite standing just 5-foot
4. She is often described as being all
legs, a valuable and necessary tool
for sprinters to have.
Now, though, she is vulnerable.
Freeman lost to Jana Pittman on
March 21, ending a nearly five-year
span when Freeman won every 400
meter race she participated in.
Pittman finished at 50.43. Free
man wasn’t far away, but wasn’t that
close either. She was done in 51.81.
“Suddenly I found myself think
ing: ‘Oh God, maybe I should re
tire,”’ she wrote in her column in
the Daily Telegraph shortly after
the loss. “I had all these extreme
Turn to Freeman, page 7C