Eugene, Oregon – Some like it hot and some like it hotter. Then there are fans of the men’s 100 at the Prefontaine Classic.
Stars from throughout the sprinting galaxy have confirmed to fill all nine lanes of the re-imagined Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus.
All 9 have sub-10 PRs in a fantastic lineup.
Andre De Grasse, 26, won Olympic gold in in Tokyo, winning the 200 with a Canadian record 19.69. That was three days after earning bronze in the 100 with a PR 9.89.
Fred Kerley, 26, earned Olympic silver in Tokyo, clocking a PR 9.84. Before this year he was known as a 400 star, winning the Diamond League in 2018 and earning bronze in the 2019 Doha World Championships.
Akani Simbine, 27, is the African record holder at 9.84. The South African was just outside of the medals in Tokyo, finishing 4th in matching his finish at the 2019 Doha World Championships.
Ronnie Baker, 27, is a 2-time winner of the Pre Classic 100. He lowered his PR twice this year to his current 9.83 at the Tokyo Olympics in finishing 5th. Baker has run sub-10 eight times this year with legal wind.
Trayvon Bromell, 26, is this year’s world leader at 9.77. Winner of the tough U.S. Olympic Trials in June, he is No. 4 on the all-time U.S. list.
Isiah Young, 31, lowered his PR to sub-9.90 territory at 9.89. He was 4th in the 200 at the U.S. Trials in June.
Michael Norman is youngest in the field at 23. He is the reigning Diamond League winner in the 400 who stretched out to 9.86 for the century in 2020 topping the yearly world list.
Justin Gatlin is 39 years old and made the U.S. Olympic Trials final for a fourth time. The 2004 Olympic gold medalist clocked 9.98 this year and owns the Pre Classic all-conditions best with a wind-aided 9.76 in 2014, one of his five wins in this event (and six including the 200).
Cravon Gillespie, 25, owned the Oregon school record at 9.93 from 2019. He lost that this year but still owns the Duck best in the 200 at 19.93.
| Men’s 100 Meters | Personal Best | |
| Justin Gatlin (USA) | 9.74 | |
| Trayvon Bromell (USA) | 9.77 | |
| Ronnie Baker (USA) | 9.83 | |
| Fred Kerley (USA) | 9.84 | |
| Akani Simbine (South Africa) | 9.84 | |
| Michael Norman (USA) | 9.86 | |
| Andre De Grasse (Canada) | 9.89 | |
| Isiah Young (USA) | 9.89 | |
| Cravon Gillespie (USA) | 9.93 | |
Fans can follow the event lineups as all announced fields are posted at PreClassic.com. The direct link to current start/entry lists is HERE and will include updates to all announced fields.
Tickets for the 46th edition of the Prefontaine Classic, to be held August 20-21 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., are available at GoDucks.com.
Accreditation requests for bona fide members of the media wishing to cover the Prefontaine Classic can be placed online at portal.diamondleague.com. Media accreditation questions and other inquiries can be sent to media@preclassic.com.
The Prefontaine Classic is the longest-running outdoor invitational track & field meet in America and is part of the elite Wanda Diamond League of meets held worldwide annually. The Pre Classic’s results score has rated No. 1 or No. 2 in the world 8 of the last 9 years it has been contested. The meet has been sponsored by NIKE continuously since 1984, the longest running title sponsorship of a single sports event in the United States. The NIKE Prefontaine Classic will be shown live to an international audience by NBC on Saturday, and live-streamed on usatf.tv on Friday night.
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 4th 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 had been held every year since, until 2020 when it fell victim to the pandemic.
