The Prefontaine Classic lit up the global athletics calendar and the 2024 Diamond League season

© Copyright – 2024 – Athletics Illustrated

The 51st Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon took place Saturday, May 25 and the meet lit up the 2024 athletics season. So far The Pre, as it is often referred to is the highlight of the 2024 Diamond League season. The top athletes brought it all out in this Olympic year at Hayward Field. 

Some 340 years prior, in 1782, French novelist Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, coined in his novel Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons), “Revenge is best served cold.”

There were a few athletes who have been letting former defeats marinate and on Saturday, they dished cold, calculated defeat to some of the best competitors in the world.

Beatrice Chebet: First woman under 29-minutes in the 10,000m

Much of the hullabaloo at Pre had to do with the Kenyan women’s 10,000-metre Paris Olympic Trials. Beatrice Chebet, who has been rising to the top globally, over the past two years, brought her A-game and smashed the world record. 

On Friday, sprinter Noah Lyles questioned why the organizers would host another country’s Olympic Trials. If anyone answered the charismatic American, it was Chebet, who received a standing ovation from the Hayward Field crowd during and after the final lap. 

The lighted rail on the inside was used and was set at world record pace. Three pacemakers were employed for duty. Sure, it was the Kenyan Trials, but 27-year-old Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay was in the race too. She entered with a 29:29.73 personal best. She left improving it by 25 seconds. What’s not to love?

Beatrice Chebet makes history, winning the 10,000m at the Prefontaine Classic in 28:54.14. She sets a world record and becomes the 1st woman to break 29 minutes on the track.

Gudaf Tsegay, who essentially served as Chebet's pacer for 22 laps, finishes second in 29:05.92. pic.twitter.com/Im5aDFo5ID

— Fast Women (@fast_women) May 25, 2024

Tsegay sat on the pacers for half the race. All pacers were off by 8800m. At this point, it was down to Tsegay and Chebet, but Chebet dropped the field as well as Tsegay and left them stranded and spread around the track as she lapped many, some more than once. 

The 24-year-old came into the race with a 14:05.92 5000m best, the third fastest in history. She also owns two World Cross Country Championships gold medals from the Gold Coast in 2023 and Belgrade in 2024. Her resume is impressive, but no one expected 28:54.14.

Tsegay’s face showed a little train early. Chebet appeared relaxed. But it is Tsegay who holds the current 5000m world record at 14:00.21, set on the same track in June 2023.

Lilian Kasait Rengeruk of Kenya took third in 29:26.89. 

Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi was the third Kenyan in 29:27.59. 

For the Olympics, it should be Chebet, Rengeruk and Kipkemboi on the Kenyan 10,000m team. The Olympic standard is 30:40.00 while 27 athletes max will be competing in the 25-lap event in Paris this summer. 

A whopping 11 women ran under the standard including Uganda’s Sarah Chelangat in 30:24.04. 

The previous world record in the event is 29:01.03 by Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey from the Hengelo meet in 2021. It takes time to officially ratify records, so it should remain a pending world record for now. 

Results 

Josh Kerr defeats rival Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the mile, sets national record

The two metric milers, Great Britain’s Josh Kerr and Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, are bitter rivals. The intensity ratcheted up when the favourite Ingebrigtsen was defeated by Kerr during the 2023 Budapest World Athletics Championships. The relationship continues to heat up over social media.

Saturday, Kerr won the mile in 3:45.34 taking Steve Cram’s British record.

With the pacer and lights going at 1:53.00 800m pace, Kerr, Jared Nuguse, Jake Wightman and Neil Gourley sat on Ingebrigtsen and the pacer. With 2:13 showing on the clock, Kerr moved out to lane two from mid-pack and began to roll through the crowd. He took the lead with 600m to go and never relinquished it. 

Josh Ker's 🇬🇧 big win in the men's mile at the Prefontaine Classic in a National Record of 3:45.34.

2. Jakob Ingebrigtsen 🇳🇴 3:45.60
3. Yared Nuguse 🇺🇸 3:46.22
4. Neil Gourley 🇬🇧 3:47.74 (PB)
5. Jake Wightman 🇬🇧 3:47.83 (PB)pic.twitter.com/kzgfXyXgiE

— Track & Field Gazette (@TrackGazette) May 26, 2024

Asked why he went with 600m to go, Kerr said, “I thought it was a dumb decision, and if I thought it was a dumb decision, it probably was and was going to scare myself and everyone around me…”

It did. While Ingebrigtsen tried hard to stay in touch with Kerr, he did not possess the kick and finished second in 3:45.60. Ingebrigtsen holds the national record done on this same track 3:43.73 last year. 

The 26-year-old Kerr took bronze at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games behind Ingebrigtsen and Kenyan Timothy Cheruiyot. The three went 3:28.32, 3:29.01 and 3:29.05, respectively. 

One year later at Hayward Field, Kerr finished fifth during the 2022 World Athletics Championships. That was not good enough, especially when he witnessed fellow Brit Jake Wightman win in 3:29.23. Ingebrigtsen took second in 3:29.47. Moh Katir of Spain took third in 3:29.80. Fellow Spaniard Mario Garcia finished fourth in 3:30.20. Kerr rolled in at 3:30.60.

Katir is currently serving a two-year suspension for whereabouts failures. He missed three out-of-competition drug tests within a 12-month period. 

Kerr was ready in Budapest and like Wightman before him, rolled past Ingebrigtsen on the final straightaway with authority.

Saturday at Prefontaine, he clocked his all-time best mile at 3:45.34. Kerr now holds three British records one each in the mile (1609m), mile indoors and 3000m. 

Keely Hodgkinson wins in an early-season burner

Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain finished second at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games, 2022 World Athletics Championships and 2023 Budapest World Athletics Championships. She also finished second at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. 

While she won the 2023 Munich European Championships and the 2022 Diamond League Finale in Zurich, it is safe to say that she has had enough of being the proverbial bride’s maid. 

The 22-year-old will have an opportunity this summer in Paris to win on the world’s biggest stage after winning Prefontaine in dominating fashion. 

Her primary nemesis has been American Athing Mu, who pulled out of the Prefontaine Classic with a hamstring issue. The other is Kenyan Mary Moraa. Moraa was ready to go.

Hodgkinson sat mid-pack with fellow Brit Jemma Reekie for the first 500m, then she began to pick up the pace, taking the lead after 600m. Until then, there was a two to three-metre gap between Hodgkinson, Reekie and three leaders in Moraa, Tsige Duguma of Ethiopia and Halimah Nakaayi of Uganda. 

Hodgkinson continued to pull away down the home stretch. 

Asked why she decided to hold back she said, “I could see that the race was going fast and I didn’t want to go that fast, so, I could use my speed at the end.”

Of her speed, it was Hodgkinson, after the Tokyo Olympics who wanted to improve he 400m speed to be in the same ballpark as the athletes she tussles with on the global circuit in the 800m. On May 15, she ran a new 400m best of 51.61. The time still does not align with her 800m ability, but she never was a 400m sprinter. Shades of the great Peter Snell, who has the slowest 200m pb on the start line of both the Rome and Tokyo Olympics 60-odd years ago. He won gold both times in the two-lap race.

Moraa clocked 1:56.71 for second, while Reekie took third in 1:57.45. 

The Olympic standard is 1:59.30 and or hold a top-48 ranking globally. Eight of 10 athletes met the standard.

Results

Kenyan men’s 10,000m Olympic Trials

Twenty-five-year-old marathon runner, Daniel Mateiko, won the Kenyan men’s 10,000m Paris Olympic Trials in 26:50.81. His personal best was 27:03.94 from Hengelo three years ago.

Well, he is not a marathon runner yet. He dropped out of his first two attempts including London in April. 

Mateiko is fast over the half-marathon though. He clocked 58:26, the 13th fastest in history. 

Unless Athletics Kenya’s selection committee changes its mind, the three Kenyans toe-ing the line in Paris in the 25-lap race will be Mateiko and Nicholas Kipkorir who finished second in 26:50.94 and Benard Kibet who took third in 26:51.09. Anything can and often does happen with the national governing body. 

The Olympic standard is 27:00.00. Twenty-seven athletes will make the one-race final. If Athletics Kenya needs to reach deeper into the list of capable athletes, the country produces a very big cache of qualified endurance athletes, six of which ran under the standard in Eugene on Saturday.

Results

Prefontaine’s other winners

Sha’Carri Richardson clocked well under 11 seconds taking the win in the time of 10.83 to lead a stacked field. 

Watch Sha'carri Richardson 🇺🇸 storm to an emphatic victory in her first 100m race of the season, clocking 10.83s at the Prefontaine Classic!

Elaine Thompson-Herah 🇯🇲 opened up to 11.30s in 8th place.pic.twitter.com/yWLQWinBXG

— Track & Field Gazette (@TrackGazette) May 25, 2024

Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia finished in second in 10.93, while Dina Asher-Smith took third at 10.98. Everyone else was 11.00 or over including Elaine Thompson-Herah in a surprising last-place finish of 11.30 — pedestrian for the Jamaican’s standard. She holds the national record at 10.54.  

In the women’s 1500m, it was a surprise to see Great Britain’s Laura Muir finish fourth. In front of her was Ethiopian Diribe Welteji in a new pb of 3:53.75 for the win. Jessica Hull of Australia set an Oceania record clocking 3:55.97 for second and American Elle St. Pierre in third in 3:56.00pb.

Tsigie Gebreselama won the women’s 5000m in 14:18.76 in a new personal best. 

Ugandan, Peruth Chemutai, clocked a new personal best in the 3000-metre steeplechase finishing in 8:55.09 for the win. 

Full results

100m Women wind +1.5

800m Men

1500m Women

5000m Women

10000m Women (Kenyan Olympic Trials)

100m Hurdles Women wind -0.9

3000m Steeplechase Women

Pole Vault Women

Triple Jump Women

Discus Throw Women

Hammer Throw Women

MEN’S RESULTS

100m Men wind +1.2

200m Men wind +1.8

Bowerman Mile Men

10000m Men (Kenyan Olympic Trials)

110m Hurdles Men wind -0.1

400m Hurdles Men

Shot Put Men