Steve Prefontaine, the brazen distance runner who passed away at a young age fifty years ago, aspired to be a mile runner. However, his top speed wasn’t sufficient for that occasion.
Thus, Prefontaine persuaded his Duck buddy to assist sprinter Vince Buford in breaking 24 seconds for 220 yards after he saw him training alone at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field track one day.
The distance runner trailed the sprinter in a series of dashes, eventually cutting down 23.4 seconds over the half-lap, as Brendan O. Meara recounts in The Front Runner, an outstanding new biography of the legend known as Pre.
According to O Meara, who quotes Buford, “He was ecstatic!” after Steve grabbed him off the ground and enveloped him in a massive bear embrace.
When two amazing women broke world records at distances that Prefontaine valued during Saturday’s 50th anniversary track classic, one wonders what Prefontaine would have thought.
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Complete results of the Prefontaine Classic at Eugene, Oregon
Beatrice Chebet, 25, arrived first.
With the first female 5,000-meter run under 14 minutes, the two-time Olympic champion delighted the sold-out audience of 12,606 spectators who had purchased tickets at the renovated Hayward Field.
As recently as May 1954, when Roger Bannister ran the first mile in less than four minutes, Chebet’s time of 13 minutes, 58.06 seconds for 3.1 miles, averaging 4:29.75 per mile, would have set a men’s world record.
A week ago, at a Nike-sponsored race in Paris, fellow Kenyan Faith Kipyegon, who aimed to become a sub-4 miler herself, stunned the crowd by setting her own world record.
Kipyegon crossed the finish line with a happy-shock expression after running the final lap of the 1,500-meter event, the day’s penultimate race, alone.
Her breaking 4 mile race on June 26 at Stade S Bastien Charl otte, when she set a new record of 4:06.91 with a flotilla of pacesetters, special shoes, and a tracksuit, was just a little faster than her time of 3:48.68, or 4:06.97 miles.
“This is the road to Tokyo (world championships in September), and I would say I am in the right direction,” said 31-year-old Kipyegon, a three-time Olympic gold medalist.
She gave gratitude to her managers, coach, and rivals.
Since they are now running quickly, the women are encouraging me as well. I’m glad that they are all running quickly now that I broke the world record because that’s what I wanted—to inspire the next generation to come and perform even better.
It feels amazing that they are following me and encouraging me to set new records.
World Athletics, the global governing body of track, was undoubtedly impressed. The meet was named the greatest one-day invitational in history using a relatively new criterion.
A number of records that made news, such as a 30-year-old American record in the hammer throw set by Rudy Winkler of Washington, D.C., were eclipsed by Chebet and Kipyegon.
Winkler spun the 16-pound ball on a steel wire 83.16 meters (272 feet, 10 inches) in the Diamond League series’ opening event, which took place at 10 a.m. prior to the national NBC transmission at 1 p.m.
At the same stadium-adjacent location in 2021, he set his own national record of 82.71 (271-4 1/4), which he surpassed. Thus, he defeated Canadian Olympic champion Ethan Katzberg in Paris.
As recently as 1982, while the Soviet Union was in control, a throw of 83.16 would have set a world record.
When I watched it land, I thought, “It looks like it could be a PR.” Then, Winkler added, I kind of blacked out for a few seconds, but I had to gather myself for my final two throws.
In addition, former world champion Brooke Andersen, a Vista native who attended Rancho Buena High School, finished second in the women’s hammer throw competition with a score of 76.95 (252-5 1/2), trailing only Canadian Olympic champion Camryn Rogers’ 78.88 (258-9 1/2).
Many spectators, eager to set even more records, were disappointed when hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won the flat 400 in 49.43 seconds, falling short of the 48.70 U.S. standard. and just married Olympic champion Athing Mu-Nikolayev, who finished last in the 800 meters after stumbling and falling on the same rust-red oval during the Olympic Trials the previous year.
Additionally, pole vault legend Mondo Duplantis won at 6.00 meters (19-8 1/4) but failed three times at a world record 6.29 meters (20-7 1/2). But whatever.
The Bowerman Mile, where the entire field is expected to finish under four, usually marks the conclusion of the Prefontaine Classic.
In the last yards of Saturday’s event, Niels Laros of the Netherlands defeated American record-holder Yared Nuguse to win.
Laros finished in 3:45.94. 3:45.95 is the nuguse. They could only be separated by a picture.
Additionally, Oregon graduate and Olympic champion Cole Hocker finished fourth at 3:47.43, behind Azeddine Habz of France, who finished in 3:46.65.
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What was the depth of the mile field?
Australia’s Oliver Hoare came in 15th. His time was 3:51.60.
(Ethan Strand also won the invitational B race earlier in 3:48.86, while fellow Americans Gary Martin and Vincent Ciattei came in second and third, respectively, in 3:49.68 and 3:49.73.)
Chebet’s 5K time on Saturday shattered previous world records, first set by Kipyegon and subsequently by Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia, who set a time of 14:00.21 in this meet in 2023.
It was 13:30.4 when Prefontaine set this first American record in 5000 in 1971 at the USA-USSR dual in Berkeley. is only 2.2 seconds quicker than Chebet’s speed each lap.
According to Chebet, I came to Eugene in order to get ready to run a world record. “Why not me, if Faith is trying?” I said.
Kipyegon, who is only 5 feet 2 inches tall, made candid and unreserved comments in the media tent.
She stated, “I think I pushed myself, getting better and better toward the 1500, so I knew it was possible to still run under 3:49.” I was training for something extraordinary, which was to run a mile in less than four minutes.
However, Kipyegon murmured something and chuckled as her handler swept her away when I inquired if any 5-foot-2 man could outrun her in the mile.
