Sensational Lineups At 50th Pre Classic Include World Record Holders And Tantalyzing Possibilities In The Men's Mile 

By Oliver Hinson of DyeStat

10 am PT – Men’s Hammer

Olympic gold medalist and 2023 world champion Ethan Katzberg is competing at Hayward Field for just the second time in his career this weekend, and the Canadian is the class of the field. He dominated in Paris last August, launching an 84.12-meter (276 feet) throw to win gold by over four meters. The gap between Katzberg and runner-up Bence Halász was bigger than the gap between Halász and Merlin Hummel, who finished in 10th place.

Katzberg owns the farthest throw in the world this year at 82.73 meters (271-5), which he recorded at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi a month ago. He hasn’t matched that mark in either of his two subsequent competitions, but he’s stayed over 80 meters.

Four other Olympic finalists populate the field, including bronze medalist Mykhaylo Kokhan (Ukraine), Rudy Winkler (USA), Rowan Hamilton (Canada) and Wojciech Nowicki (Poland). 

10:50 am PT — Men’s Discus

Lithuania’s Mykolas Alekna, who competed for the University of California his spring, came into the NCAA Championships as a heavy favorite in the discus, having broken the world record with a mark of 75.56 meters (247-10) in April. 

Alekna didn’t have his best day, though; he fouled on four of his six attempts and only reached 66.77 meters. He suffered the first loss of his season that weekend, taking second to Oklahoma’s Ralford Mullings.

Alekna on Wednesday declared that he is transferring to Oregon after going into the portal after NCAAs. So he'll be competing at his new home and in front of new coach Brian Blutreich. 

Alekna will seek to avenge an ugly loss in his last visit to Hayward Field, for NCAAs, while Mullings will try to prove that his win there was not a fluke. The Jamaican is coming off a win at the National Championships in Kingston last weekend, so he certainly has some momentum.

Of course, the reigning Olympic champion, Mullings’ countryman Roje Stona, is also in the field. Stona has only thrown three times this outdoor season, and his best mark so far is 67.19 meters (220-5). With the World Athletics Championships still over two months away, most professionals haven’t even begun to peak, but a solid performance this weekend could give Stona some confidence heading into the meat of the international season.

Olympic finalist Daniel Stahl (Sweden) is in the field, as are Americans Sam Mattis and Andrew Evans, both of whom just missed out on the final last August in Paris.

11:10 am PT — Men’s 10,000m 

This race will serve as the selection process for Kenya’s three-man World Championships squad for the 10,000 meters, so there will be no shortage of Kenyan singlets. Many of the country’s best, including Edwin Kurgat, Nicholas Kipkorir and NCAA champion Ishmael Kipkurui of New Mexico are in the field.

There’s also plenty of Ethiopians, though, including Selemon Barega and Berihu Aregawi.

And then there’s Conner Mantz, an American marathoner. What is he doing here?

Mantz has dominated the American road racing scene so thoroughly over the last few years that it’s easy to forget he’s not done with the track. He finished sixth in the 10,000 at last year’s Olympic Trials, his most recent race on the oval to date. Since then, he’s raced three marathons and two half marathons.

In May, though, he returned to the (relatively) shorter distances, winning Bolder Boulder, a 10-kilometer road race in Boulder, Colorado, with a time of 28:21. The altitude conversion alone puts him at 27:08 at sea level. Throw in the rolling hills and the rainy weather, and he could be looking at a sub-27. That’s not to say he’ll run that fast this weekend — it’ll be close to 80 degrees — but it is to say that he’s in great shape. The question is, can he hang with the best distance runners in the world?

12:07 pm/12:24 pm PT — Men’s Para 100m Mixed Classification /200m T62/T64

Six of the eight competitors in the men’s mixed classification 100 meters won medals at the Paralympics last year… in the same event. How does that work?

See “mixed classification.” There were 16 classifications for the men’s 100 meters at the Paralympics, each to accommodate athletes with different types of disabilities. By mixing all of them together in one race, the race organizers are putting together one of the most decorated fields of all time. 

Jaydin Blackwell, who suffers from cerebral palsy, won the men’s T38 100 meters last year, as well as the T38 400 meters. The American holds the record in the latter event with a time of 48.49 seconds.

Salum Ageze Kashafali, meanwhile, holds the world record in the T12 men’s 100 meters with a time of 10.43 seconds. He competed in the T13 classification at the Paralympics last year, finishing second.

Zachary Shaw (Great Britain), Noah Malone (USA), Felix Streng (Germany) and Ryan Medrano (USA) also claimed medals last year.

The men’s 200 meters only includes two classifications: T62 and T64, for athletes with single or double amputation below the knee, who use prosthetic legs to run.

American Hunter Woodhall, a crowd favorite, headlines the race. He won the T62 400 meters at the Paralympics. However, the gold medalist in the T64 200 meters and T64 100 meters, Costa Rica’s Sherman Isidro Guity Guity, is also in the field. 

12:30 pm PT — Men’s Pole Vault

If Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis breaks the world record on Saturday, it’ll be the 13th time he’s done so in his career and the third time he’s done it at Hayward Field. At this point, it seems like he can do it at will, and a high-profile meet like this one would be a fitting place to do so. Stay tuned as he’s approaching 6.28 meters. 

If he does break it, it won’t be show-stopping news — it’s more of a rite of passage for fans at this meet to witness it — but it will have some implications, as will his next few record-breaking clearances (assuming, of course, that he’s far from done). 

Aside from his raw marks, he’s still lagging behind Sergey Bubka, the former pole vault G.O.A.T. from Ukraine, in several legacy-defining categories. Bubka broke the record a whopping 17 times outdoors (and 18 times indoors), and he left it nearly a full foot (0.31 meters) higher than it was when he first broke it in 1984.

Duplantis hasn’t even moved it half that far; he’s taken it from 6.16 meters (20-2.50) to 6.28 meters (20-7.25), less than five inches. 

Of course, Duplantis is bringing the mark closer to the theoretical limits of human performance, so his room for growth is naturally smaller. He's also only 25 years old. 

If everything goes according to plan on Saturday, the crowd will get what they’re expecting: Duplantis clears 6.29 meters and goes wild, while everyone is left wondering how high he can really jump.

12:51 pm PT — Men’s International Mile (B section)

This could very well be the best race of the entire meet. Yes, the Bowerman Mile will likely be a few seconds faster. No, it’s not a Diamond Discipline. 

But there’s so much at stake.

Consider this: one of the most memorable moments in the history of the Prefontaine Classic is Alan Webb's legendary effort to break Jim Ryun’s high school national record in the mile. Webb’s mark of 3:53.43 has stood since 2001, making it one of the oldest and most prized. Plenty of teenage prodigies have come and gone since then — Drew Hunter, Hobbs Kessler and Colin Sahlman, to name a few — but no one has dipped under 3:56 since Webb. 

This weekend, Webb’s record could face its most serious threat. Owen Powell, the Mercer Island WA standout who tore up the high school scene this year, could be the man to finally break it.

In the winter, Powell broke the indoor high school mile record, running 3:56.66 at the Terrier DMR Challenge in Boston. Over the next few months, though, he didn’t get any chances to run the mile against worthy competition. He had to wait until the Portland Track Festival on June 16 to test his skills; at that meet, he ran against professional competition in the men’s 1,500 meters, clocking a 3:36.49. According to the World Athletics scoring tables, that performance translates roughly to a 3:53.59 mile.

Does Powell have what it takes to not only replicate that performance, but shave off a few tenths? Maybe, but everything will have to go the right way.

As far as weather, there’s nothing to be too concerned about. It’ll be sunny and a little shy of 75 degrees at race time with a slight headwind (about 7 mph) on the back stretch. It won’t be as ideal as it was in Portland, where he raced under the lights in slightly cooler temperatures, but that shouldn’t be enough to make a big difference.

As far as pacing, he’ll have every advantage, as long as he doesn’t do two things. First and most obvious, he can’t get tripped up. There are 16 men in the field, which is fairly packed for a mile, and they will all be going out hard. It would serve Powell well to play it safe and hang towards the back.

Np. 2, he can’t go out and try to win the thing. This is not a championship race, it’s a time trial. As long as it doesn’t go out in tactical fashion, which is highly unlikely, Powell can probably sit near the tail end of the pack and still come through the quarter in about 58 seconds, which is what he needs. 

It would be a storybook ending for Powell, who was born in Eugene and spent his early years here when his parents were assistant coaches at Oregon. 

If everything goes according to plan, it’ll come down to fitness, freshness and grit. He obviously has the first, and seeing as he hasn’t raced in three weeks, he should have the second. 

Ahead of Powell, most likely, will be college standouts Ethan Strand, Gary Martin, Adam Spencer and Simeon Birnbaum, four of the best mid-distance runners in the NCAA who are out to rehash one of the best collegiate races in recent memory, the men’s 1,500-meter final at this year’s NCAA Championships.

Strand had the top finish among them, taking second to Washington’s Nathan Green. Spencer took fourth, followed by Martin in fifth and Birnbaum in seventh. All of them ran 3:47, and they were separated by 0.31 seconds.

That race didn’t necessarily show who was fastest, though; it showed who had the best kick, or perhaps the best positioning. An honest pace in Saturday’s race could seriously shuffle things.

It could also lead to a new collegiate record. Strand holds the all-dates record with a 3:48.32 mark that he recorded this February at the Terrier Classic at Boston University, and Martin isn’t close behind with a mark of 3:48.82. Even if they don’t eclipse those times, they could still break the outdoor all-dates record, which is 3:50.34, set by Baylor’s Todd Harbour in 1981.

With how loaded this field is, though, 3:47 is not out of the question. Several American pros, including Cooper Teare, Sam Prakel and Vincent Ciattei, are included.

And of course, there’s the 16-year-old prodigy named Sam Ruthe. The Kiwi holds the age-15 world record for the mile at 3:58.35, and he has a chance to topple the age-16 record, too. That mark is 3:55.44, set by Australia’s Cameron Myers in 2023.

Myers was the last teenager to capture the attention of the distance running world. From the looks of it, Ruthe is next.

1:04 pm PT — Men’s 400m Hurdles (Diamond Discipline)

When it comes to this event, the objective of any meet organizer is to land the “Holy Trinity” — Norway’s Karsten Warholm, the United States’ Rai Benjamin and Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos. No one outside of these three has won a global championship in the event since Kerron Clement took home gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016, and when they face up, it’s nearly guaranteed that they’ll put on a show.

This weekend, we’ll get to watch two of three — Benjamin and Dos Santos will line up, but Warholm will not. Even without the Norwegian, it’ll be a race to watch. After an undefeated season that culminated in a gold medal performance at the Paris Olympics last year, Benjamin has largely forgone the post-Olympics slump, recording two sub-47s in his first two 400 meter hurdle races of the season, including a world-leading 46.54 at the Stockholm Diamond League.

Dos Santos also has plenty of momentum. He’s run the second fastest time in the world, a mark of 46.68 that earned him second place behind Benjamin in Stockholm. 

There’s two more names to pay attention to in this field: Ezekiel Nathaniel (Nigeria) and Abderrahman Samba (Qatar). Nathaniel stormed to victory at the NCAA Championships in June, clocking a 47.49, the third-fastest time in collegiate history.

Samba, meanwhile, recently ran a personal best 47.09 for the win at the Paris Diamond League, putting him at third in the world this year. He hadn’t run under 47.50 in nearly four years before that race. If he records another impressive performance this weekend, he’ll certainly be someone to watch come September.

1:12 pm PT — Men’s 100m (Diamond Discipline)

There are plenty of questions to answer. First off: is this Kishane Thompson’s year? The 23-year-old just ran 9.75 at the Jamaican National Championships, putting him at No. 6 all-time, while Olympic champion Noah Lyles hasn’t raced since April. If Thompson wants to claim the “Fastest Man Alive” title, this could be his year to do it. He seems to be fully in his prime, and no one else has run under 9.80 this year. 

Saturday’s race will give him another chance to assert himself as the man to beat in Tokyo, and thanks to some cooperative Eugene weather, it could also give him a chance to move up on the all-time list. It’ll be about 80 degrees and sunny with light wind at race time.

Another question: Is Trayvon Bromell really back? It certainly seems that way. He’s run sub-10 twice this year, once at the PURE Athletics Invitational in Clermont, Fla. (9.91) and again at the Rome Diamond League (9.84). Before those races, he hadn’t broken 10 seconds since 2022. 

Saturday’s race will be the most competitive of his season thus far, and it will indicate just how serious of a threat he is on the global stage this year. He’s never finished higher than third at a global outdoor championship, but he owns the third fastest time in the world in 2025. Taking home another global medal this fall would make him one of the best comeback stories of the year.

Bromell will be joined this weekend by fellow Americans Christian Coleman and Brandon Hicklin, the latter of whom has run 9.93 this year, while Thompson will be joined by his countryman, Ackeem Blake, who has run 9.88.

1:43 pm PT — Men’s 400m (Diamond Discipline)

There are a lot of dynamics in this race. In addition to a stacked international contingent, it features four of the five fastest Americans this year. With the USATF Championships less than a month away, there are plenty of storylines to observe.

Let’s start with Jacory Patterson’s dream season. The former Florida standout was at a standstill entering this season. He hadn’t broken 45 seconds since 2021, and he was working the graveyard shift at UPS to make ends meet.

Patterson kept his faith, though, and it paid off in the form of a breakout year (and a contract with Nike). In March, he took home a bronze medal in the 400 at the World Athletics Indoor Championships, and less than a month later, he clocked a new personal best, running 44.27 at the Tom Jones Memorial meet in Gainesville, Fla. He followed that up with another PB and a world lead, running 43.98 at the Miami Grand Slam.

He wasn’t done there. On May 25, he earned his first Diamond League win, running 44.37 in Rabat.

All of this is to say that Patterson has plenty of momentum, and if he can keep it going, he’ll put himself in a great position to make his first outdoor national team.

Echoing Patterson’s trajectory is Khaleb McRae, the recent Alabama grad. McRae was a solid collegian, never an NCAA champion or even a conference champion (aside from a 4x400 relay victory), but he’s made a name for himself this year, especially in the past month. On June 22, he clocked a 43.91 at the Bob Vigars Classic in London, making him the fastest American this year. 

Even more impressive, he ran the first 200 meters of that race in 20.1 seconds. With slightly less aggressive pacing, he could drop that time even further.

Then there’s Quincy Hall. Since winning a gold medal in Paris last August, he’s only raced three times, but he’s shaved off quite a bit of time with each performance. There was definitely some rust coming into the year — he finished eighth in the 400 at the Shanghai Diamond League, running 45.99 — but he ran 44.90 in Rabat three weeks later and 44.22 in Rome two weeks after that. Saturday’s race could be the perfect opportunity for Hall to show that he’s back in championship form.

Rounding out the American contingent is Christopher Bailey, the reigning world indoor champion in this event. In his outdoor campaign, he’s raced the 400 four times, and he’s gone under 45 seconds in each of those races. His best is a 44.17, which earned him a win at the Shanghai Diamond League.

As for the international athletes in the field, all five competed in this event at the Paris Olympics, and two of them earned medals. Matthew Hudson-Smith (Great Britain) was the silver medalist, while Muzala Samukonga (Zambia) won bronze.

1:56 pm PT — Men’s Shot Put (Diamond Discipline)

If this competition looks a little similar to last year’s, that’s because it is. Of the eight men in the field, seven competed at this meet in 2024. The only difference? American Josh Awotunde has been swapped out for Italy’s Leonardo Fabbri.

The question is, will the similarities carry over to the results? Last year, American Joe Kovacs came out on top with a monster 23.13-meter (75-10.50)( throw, another show of dominance in a season that culminated with him earning a silver medal in Paris.

Kovacs has only thrown four times this year, though, and he’s failed to surpass 22 meters. His best is 21.59 meters, which earned him fourth place at the Rome Diamond League on June 6.

Meanwhile, the newcomer, Fabbri, is ranked first in the world with a season’s best of 22.31 meters (73-2.25). He’s competed a whopping 18 times this year, and he’s won the last four of those competitions, so he’ll be bringing in a lot of momentum.

Americans Payton Otterdahl and Adrian Piperi are also athletes to look out for. They’re ranked second and third in the world, respectively, with season’s bests of 22.09 and 21.96 meters. Otterdahl finished second behind Kovacs last year, while Piperi fouled on three of his attempts and finished eighth. Both of them will have something to prove. 

Other top competitors include Rajindra Campbell (Jamaica), Roger Steen (USA), Tom Walsh (New Zealand) and Chukwuebuka Cornnell Enekwechi (Nigeria).

2:25 pm PT — Men’s 200 Meters (Diamond Discipline)

American fans want nothing short of a gold medal in the 200 meters this year, especially after Noah Lyles’ loss to Letsile Tebogo last year in Paris. 

Kenny Bednarek has offered every indication this year that he will be the man to make that happen. He swept his Grand Slam Track competition and threw down some impressive times along the way, including a time of 19.84 that puts him a hundredth of a second outside of the world lead. 

Tebogo, meanwhile, hasn’t shown the same flashes of excellence that he did last year. He recorded two sub-10 performances in the 100 meters and three sub-20 performances in the 200 before showing up to Paris, and he hasn’t done either of those things yet in 2025. So far, the Botswanan’s most notable performance is his win in the 200 at the Doha Diamond League, where he ran 20.10 to beat American Courtney Lindsey and Liberia’s Joseph Fahnbulleh. 

In races against better competition, he hasn’t fared well. His last time out, he finished dead last in the 100 meters at the Rabat Diamond League with a time of 10.43 seconds. He’s also dealt with an injury since then, putting him in an even worse position coming into this meet. 

Granted, the World Athletics Championships are in September. Perhaps it’s too early to pass judgment. If he doesn’t break out soon, though, Bednarek might have an easier path to gold than anyone thought he would.

Look out for Fahnbulleh, who’s also in this race. The former Florida Gator is no stranger to winning at Hayward Field. He won three NCAA titles during his time in college, and all of them came in Eugene. 

2:50 pm PT — Bowerman Mile (Diamond Discipline)

No mile race is as consistently great as the Bowerman Mile. For the last 50 years, it has pitted the world’s best against each other, and this year is no exception. 

Despite the absences of Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigsten, the defending champion and runner-up, Saturday’s race still features a stacked field, including Cole Hocker, the Olympic gold medalist in the 1,500 meters; Yared Nuguse, the bronze medalist; and several of the other best middle-distance runners in the world right now.

There’s Hobbs Kessler, who finished fifth at the Olympics last year. At 22 years old, Kessler is past the point of being the next man up in American distance running. He is already a medal threat on the global stage, and he’s likely going to be a threat for at least the next two Olympic cycles. His personal best in the mile is 3:46.90.

Then there’s France’s Azeddine Habz, who is having the best season of his career at 31 years old. He ran 3:27.49 on his home turf at the Paris Diamond League two weeks ago, making him the sixth fastest man of all time in the 1,500.

There’s Jake Wightman (Great Britain), the 2022 world champion. There’s Timothy Cheruiyot (Kenya), the 2019 world champion. There’s Grant Fisher (USA), the world record holder in the 3,000 meters who is taking a rare step down to the mile.

Everyone in this race has credentials; to list them all would take ages, and to speculate about who’s in the best shape would be pointless.

The story is this: all 16 of these men are in tremendous shape, and there is a chance — slight, perhaps — that one of them could take down seemingly the most elusive record in men’s distance running: Hicham El Guerrouj’s world record of 3:43.13.

Without Ingebrigtsen, the chances are slightly lessened; he is a notorious frontrunner, and he would likely do whatever it takes to make sure the record goes down, even if he’s not the one to break it.

Still, it is a non zero chance, and if the record goes down at all this year, it’s likely to happen here, at Hayward Field.