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The Top Pre Classic Moments - 2010sPublished by
In honor of the 40th running of the Prefontaine Classic, a panel of track and field aficionados generated a ranking of the Top 40 Moments in Pre Classic history. The Top 40 Moments are more than a collection of the best athletes to compete at the Pre Classic; these moments are about competition, breaking historical records, and excitement! These are the moments that we remember as the best of the Pre Classic in its first 40 years. The Top 40 Moments will be available in the 2014 Pre Classic program (and listed in full on PreClassic.com after the meet). Below are all the nominated moments from which the Top 40 were selected, in chronological order. Top Pre Classic Moments - 1970s - 1980s - 1990s - 2000s - 2010s - Top 40 All-time
The Top Pre Classic Moments - 2000s
2010 Men’s 200 – Walter Dix fought off Tyson Gay in the homestretch as the pair produced the meet’s first wind-legal, auto-timed sub-20.00 marks. Dix at 19.72 was just a few inches ahead of Gay’s 19.76, with both breaking the Hayward Field record (19.86).
2010 Men’s 1000 – Abubaker Kaki ran the fastest anywhere in more than a decade, and his 2:13.62 became the best ever on U.S. soil.
2010 Men’s 5000 – Tariku Bekele used a 55-second last lap to produce the first sub-13 ever run in America, his 12:58.93 holding off fellow Ethiopian countrymen Dejen Gebremeskel (12:59.30) and Imane Merga (13:00.18). The first six finishers broke the previous meet record.
2010 Men’s 110mHurdles – David Oliver set an American Record 12.90 to outclass the field by 0.26 seconds with the fastest time ever run in the U.S.
2010 Men’s Shot – Christian Cantwell sailed all six of his attempts over 70 feet (21.34), but only his final attempt of 73-6¼ (22.41) shattered Kevin Toth’s 2002 meet record.
2010 Women’s 100 – Veronica Campbell-Brown led three under the meet record at 10.78. Fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (10.82) and American Carmelita Jeter (10.83) followed closely.
2010 Women’s 800 – Mariya Savinova achieved something no one had accomplished in this event – she ran faster than 12-time Pre Classic winner Maria Mutola. Savinova’s 1:57.56 shaved 0.01 off Mutola’s best.
2010 Women’s 5000 – Tirunesh Dibaba cruised to a meet record 14:34.07 as she won by over 15 seconds.
2010 Women’s 400m Hurdles – Lashinda Demus crushes the meet record by more than a second, finishing in 53.03, the 5th fastest ever run in America.
2010 Women's Hammer Throw – Twice Betty Heidler extended her own US soil record, to 244-4 (74.48) and 244-7 (74.55), but Tatyana Lysenko’s final throw was even better, 249-3 (75.98).
2011 Men’s 100 – Steve Mullings won in a meet record of 9.80, with Mike Rodgers also under the meet record at 9.85. The field was incredibly deep, as 6 were sub-10.00 and the 8th-place time of 10.02 was the world’s fastest ever for that place.
2011 Men’s 800 – Abubaker Kaki, only 21, ran the meet’s first sub-1:44 and won by nearly two seconds in 1:43.68.
2011 Men’s 10K – Mo Farah’s first Pre Classic win marked the first time more than one runner ran sub-27 on U.S. soil. Farah’s European Record 26:46.57 led a total of nine under the barrier, the most in history.
2011 Men’s 30K – Moses Mosop flashed his 2:03 marathon talents on the track, clocking 2 WRs, one at 25K (1:12:25.4) en route to the final 30K distance (1:26:47.4). His average for each 10K (28:55.8) was better than 4 of Zatopek’s 5 WRs at the distance.
2011 Men’s 110m Hurdles – David Oliver defended his title over 3-time champ Liu Xiang in a duel of the meet’s two fastest ever. Oliver’s 12.94 prevailed over Liu’s 13.00.
2011 Women’s 100 – Carmelita Jeter raced to a stunning meet record 10.70, winning by 0.16 and leaving in her wake American Marshevet Myers (10.86) and Jamaican Olympic medalists Kerron Stewart (10.87), Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (10.95), and Sherone Simpson (11.00).
2011 Women’s 5000 – Vivian Cheruiyot lowered one of the meet’s most hallowed standards to 14:33.96. Previous meet record holders include Mary Slaney, Meseret Defar, and Tirunesh Dibaba.
2012 Men’s 800 – Abubaker Kaki, 22, fought off 18-year-old Mohamed Aman as both threatened Kaki’s 1:43.68 meet record. Kaki’s 1:43.71 finished just ahead of Aman’s 1:43.74, as the Pre Classic sub-1:44 club now had two members.
2012 Men’s 5000 – Mo Farah set a meet record in 12:56.98, but also up on the radar was training partner Galen Rupp’s PRing in 3rd at 12:58.90. Turns up the two would celebrate again in London.
2012 Men’s 10K – The Pre Classic hosted a race like none other ever seen – Kenya’s best fighting for a place on a glorious Olympic team, but on American soil. After the playing of the Kenyan National Anthem, 15 of Kenya’s finest 10K runners waged battle for 25 laps, without a pacesetter. Wilson Kiprop won the historic race in 27:01.98, and all combatants in the Kenyan-only race finished sub-28.
2012 Men’s 110m Hurdles – Liu Xiang ran his fastest ever anywhere, and equal to the best by anyone on the planet at 12.87. A wind reading of 2.4 mps gave it an additional “w”, but Aries Merritt also fought him to the end in his best ever at 12.96w. Merritt would soon later win Olympic gold and set a WR 12.80.
2012 Women’s 800 – Alysia Montano not only broke won of the meet’s most respected records at 1:57.37, she did it in style, wearing a signature flower in her hair while running in the rain.
2012 Women’s Steeple – Milcah Chemos ran the fastest ever on U.S. soil at 9:13.69, leading four others under the previous fastest.
2012 Women's High Jump – The first 2-meter jumps in the Pre Classic. Winner Anna Chicherova (2.02) would become the Olympic Champion; runner-up Svetlana Shkolina (2.00) the 2013 World Champion.
2012 Women’s Hammer –Betty Heidler won for the third time, this time at 249-1 (75.93), but just off the meet record. Jessica Cosby finished 4th and broke the American record at 243-5 (74.19).
2013 Men’s 400 – LaShawn Merritt repeated as Pre Classic champ, holding off Olympic and World champ Kirani James by 0.07 seconds in 44.32. Merritt, the 2008 Olympic champ, later reclaimed gold in Moscow at the World Championships.
2013 Men’s Mile – Silas Kiplagat edged Asbel Kiprop in a Kenyan rivalry worthy of all-time world stature. In unseasonably warm weather, Kiplagat was 0.05 faster at 3:49.48.
2013 Men’s 3000m Steeple – Conseslus Kipruto literally held off Kenyan countryman and two-time Olympic champ Ezekiel Kemboi to break the meet record by over 4 seconds in 8:03.59. On the homestretch, the two sprinted but near the finish Kemboi was judged to impede Kipruto. Not only did Kipruto win, judges disqualified Kemboi. Two others broke the meet record, and Evan Jager (8:08.60) ran the fastest ever by an American on U.S. soil.
2013 Men’s 10,000 – Kenenisa Bekele added to his lore by becoming the meet’s first ever to win the event twice. He clocked 27:12.08 in unseasonable warm temperate to out-class a world class field.
2013 Men’s High Jump – Mutaz Essa Barshim cleared 7-10½ (2.40) in a competition for the ages. He scaled the winning height after missing twice at 7-10 (2.39), but after collegians Erik Kynard and Derek Drouin missed a third time he asked the bar to be raised to one never before cleared in America. Barshim cleared, sending the crowd to deafening levels.
2013 Men’s Discus – Robert Harting found plenty of reason to rip his singlet off after winning with 228-10 (69.75), the farthest at the Pre Classic since 1984 – only legends Mac Wilkins, Ben Plucknett, and Art Burns had ever thrown farther. He would end the year as the event’s first to rank No. 1 in the world by Track & Field News five straight years.
2013 Women’s 100 – Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce burst to 10.71 and lead two others under 10.80, but all of them got “w’s” as the wind reading was 2.2mps, just over the 2.0 allowable for record purposes. Blessing Okagbare (10.75w) and Veronica Campbell-Brown (10.79w) completed the first trio ever under 10.80 in the same race on U.S. soil.
2013 Women’s 800 – Francine Niyonsaba shaved more than half a second off the meet record to win in 1:56.72, but 17-year-old prep Mary Cain had the crowd’s attention. After running near the back, Cain stormed around the Bowerman Curve and finished fifth in 1:59.51, breaking a 31-year-old national high school record set by Kim Gallagher.
2013 Women’s 1500 – Hellen Obiri blistered the field in a meet-record 3:58.58 to not only win by over two seconds, but also running the fastest ever on U.S. soil – breaking a record set by Mary Slaney some 25 years earlier. More news |
