Gold Medalists Lining Up for Women’s Long Jump at Pre Classic

(The 42^nd Prefontaine Classic, a member of the IAAF Diamond League of elite international track & field meets, will be held May 27-28 at historic Hayward Field.)

            Eugene, Oregon – Every major international championship gold medalist since 2009 is confirmed for the Prefontaine Classic’s women’s long jump, and the field includes three silver medalists looking to move up to the gold-medal club at the Rio Olympics.
           
            Tianna Bartoletta, 30, won gold last summer at the Beijing World Championships with a lifetime best 23-5½ (7.15).  She now has four major golds, and her collection is impressive, if not unique.  Her first came as a 20-year-old in the 2005 Helsinki World Championships, and her second in the 2006 Moscow World Indoor Championships. 

            Bartoletta earned her third major gold by leading off the world-record setting U.S. 4x100 team at the London Olympics.  It was just a part of her best season as a sprinter, as she finished 4^th in the Olympic 100 in a PR 10.85.  Winner of last year’s Pre Classic long jump, Bartoletta has claimed the last two Diamond League titles in the event.

            Brittney Reese, 29, won her seventh major gold with a meet record at the recent World Indoor Championships in Portland.  It marked a return to the top for Reese, who struggled last year with a back injury.  Her best at Portland was just over an inch shy of her PR 23-9½ (7.25) – the farthest any woman has leapt since 2004.

            The London Olympic gold medalist, Reese (whose Twitter handle is, appropriately enough, DaLJBeast)  was the dominant jumper from 2009-13, earning five straight No. 1 world rankings by Track & Field News – the only one with that long a streak at the top.  Already the only American besides Jackie Joyner-Kersee with an Olympic gold medal, with a win at the Rio Olympics, Reese would join Heike Drechsler as the only two-time gold medalists.

            France’s Eloyse Lesueur, 27, is the only other jumper in the field besides Bartoletta and Reese with a major gold or a T&FN world No. 1 ranking.  She achieved both in 2014, the year she won the World Indoor Championships.  The two-time reigning European champion, Lesueur returns after missing the 2015 outdoor season with a knee injury.

            Shara Proctor, 27, became Great Britain’s first 7-meter jumper with her silver medal at last year’s Beijing World Championships, jumping 23-2½ (7.07).  It was her best medal yet, topping the bronze at the 2012 World Indoor Championships.  The 2013 Diamond League winner, Proctor is the only one in the field besides Reese to have been world ranked in each of the last four years by T&FN.

            Canada’s Christabel Nettey is the youngest in the field at 24.  She won the Pan-American Games gold last summer in Toronto, then finished an agonizing 4^th at both last summer’s World Championships and this winter’s World Indoor Championships.  She was ranked No. 4 in the world last year by T&FN, becoming the first Canadian ever in this event.

            Ivana Spanovic of Serbia will turn 26 on May 10 and already owns four major medals, topped by her silver at the World Indoor Championships in Portland with a lifetime best 23-2½ (7.07).  She was bronze medalist in the last two outdoor World Championships, as well as the 2014 World Indoor.  Since 2013, Spanovic has been world ranked no lower than No. 4 by T&FN.

            Janay DeLoach, 30, is the third American in the field and looking at a strong start.  In the last Olympic year, DeLoach won silver at the World Indoor Championships and bronze at London, giving the U.S. its only two-medal showing in the Olympics along with Reese’s gold.  At the recent World Indoor Championships in Portland, DeLoach was less than two inches from a bronze medal, taking 4^th.
 

 
            Fans can follow the event lineups on <link http: eugene.diamondleague.com external-link-new-window external link in new>eugene.diamondleague.com. The direct link to current start/entry lists is <link http: eugene.diamondleague.com program_results_eugene external-link-new-window here>HERE and will include updates to all announced fields.  Additional news, photos, and videos may be found at our social networking site, <link http: www.preclassic.com _blank>www.preclassic.com.

            Tickets for the 42^nd annual edition of the Prefontaine Classic, to be held May 27-28 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., are available now at <link http: www.goducks.com>www.GoDucks.com as well as from 1-800-WEBFOOT. 

            The Prefontaine Classic is the longest-running outdoor invitational track & field meet in America and is part of the elite IAAF Diamond League of meets held worldwide annually.  The Pre Classic’s results score has rated No. 1 or No. 2 in the world in each of the last five years by All-Athletics.com, the official data partner of the Diamond League.  Sponsored by NIKE continuously since 1984, the Prefontaine Classic will be shown live to an international audience and by NBC and NBC Sports.

            Steve Prefontaine is a legend in the sport of track & field and is the most inspirational distance runner in American history.  He set a national high school 2-mile record (8:41.5) while at Marshfield High School in Coos Bay, Oregon, that is the fastest ever in a National Federation-sanctioned race.  While competing for the University of Oregon, he won national cross country championships (3) and outdoor track 3-Mile/5000-meter championships (4), and never lost a collegiate track race at any distance.  As a collegiate junior, he made the 1972 U.S. Olympic Team and nearly won an Olympic medal, finishing 4^th in the 5K at the 1972 Munich Olympics, at age 21.  After finishing college in 1973 and preparing for a return to the Olympics in 1976, he continued to improve, setting many American records.  His life ended tragically on May 30, 1975, the result of an auto accident, at age 24.  The Pre Classic began that year and has been held every year since.