Nick Symmonds will be taking on some heavy duty 800 meter specialists in the
1,000 meter distance at the Nike Pre Classic. To see who Nick is battling, please
read the following release!
MAJOR MATCH-UPS IN PRE CLASSIC
MIDDLE
DISTANCES
Eugene,
Oregon–For fans of head-to-head competition and fast times, the women’s
800 and men’s 1000 meters at the
Prefontaine Classic on July 3rd aim to please.
In the
Diamond League 800 meters, it’s a clash of gold medalists, with Beijing Olympic
gold
medalist Pamela Jelimo racing
against Osaka World Championships gold medalist Janeth
Jepkosgei and Berlin World Championships 1500 gold medalist Maryam Jamal. Add in Americans Anna Pierce,
ranked No. 2 in the world at
800 meters last year by Track & Field
News magazine, and surprise 2009 Pre Classic champion Maggie
Vessey, ranked No. 6 in the world, and you have the makings
of a great race. Add in world No. 3
ranked Jenny Meadows of Great
Britain and No. 4 ranked Mariya
Savinova of Russia,
and you have the makings of
an epic contest.
The men’s
1000 meters figures to be a battle between hometown hero Nick
Symmonds, ranked No. 10 in the world, versus Abubaker
Kaki of Sudan, ranked No. 5 in
the world, versus previous Pre Classic champion Alfred
Yego of Kenya, who was ranked No. 3 in the world last year
by T&FN. Kaki has asked for a
very fast pace (1:45 at 800 meters), and the best time ever recorded on
American soil–2:15.97–is in serious jeopardy.
Tickets to
the NIKE Prefontaine Classic are still available at preclassic.com or
by
calling 1-800-WEBFOOT.
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Author
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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