USA Track & Field – News – Big stars to shine bright at Nike Prefontaine Classic

EUGENE, Oregon — Two days of world-class competition grace Historic Hayward Field, Friday and Saturday, for the 2016 Nike Prefontaine Classic, where Olympians and world champions compete in 16 Diamond race specialties during the season's second USATF Championship Series event.

Fans can catch live coverage online and on-air on USATF.TV +PLUS, NBCSN & NBC over the course of the next two days.

The Friday night webcast begins at 11:20 p.m. ET on USATF.TV +PLUS, and coverage resumes Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN. NBC takes over at 5 p.m., and USATF.TV hosts the last leg of coverage with The Cool Down at 6 p.m. ET.

Distance Night also features field battles

Friday Field events feature Diamond races in women's long jump, women's discus and men's shot put, as the evening takes flight with three American women, including 2016 World Champion Tianna Bartoletta (Tampa Florida), World and Olympic Champion Brittney Reese (Chula Vista, California) and Olympic bronze medalist Janay Deloach (Fort Collins, Colorado) in a stacked long jump field.

Whitney Ashley (Moreno Valley, California) and Gia Lewis-Smallwood (Champaign, Illinois) will compete in discus before American men make up two-thirds of the shot put field. World champion Joe Kovacs (Nazareth, Pennsylvania) will face five fellow countrymen, including Kurt Roberts (Ashland, Ohio), who threw 21.40m/70-2.5 in Shanghai a few weeks ago for a season best.   

Distance Night races kick off with the USATF High Performance 800m, featuring Alysia Montano (Canyon Country, California), Molly Ludlow (Indianapolis, Indiana) and Hoka One One MDC champion Laura Roesler (Fargo, North Dakota) before the women's 5,000m pits Molly Huddle (Providence, Rhode Island) against Kim Conley (Sacramento, California), Nicole Tully (Englewood, N.J.) and Heather Kampf (Inner Grove Heights, Minnesota).

Jumps take center stage Saturday

Saturday opens with a highly touted triple jump with Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion Christian Taylor (Fayetteville, Georgia), two-time Olympic medalist Will Claye (Phoenix, Arizona), World Indoor champion Marquis Dendy (Middletown, Delaware)and multi-time USATF champion Omar Craddock (Killeen, Texas). Taylor leads the field with a 2016 top leap of 17.23m/56-6.5.

Men's pole vault heats up with Sam Kendricks (Oxford, Mississippi) against his French foe Renaud Lavillenie. Kendricks has been jumping the best of his career with a recent 5.92/19-5 personal best at the Beijing World Challenge, which is the best 2016 clearance in the field.

The talented teenage high jumper Vashti Cunningham (Las Vegas, Nevada) approaches Saturday jumps with a season best of 1.94/6-4.25. Cunningham faces American record holder Chaunte Lowe (Loganville, Georgia), who went up and over 1.96m/6-5 at the Rio test event a few weeks ago.

Sprints look to torch the track

Exciting sprint matchups will take to the track Saturday afternoon as Justin Gatlin (Orlando, Florida), Mike Rodgers (Round Rock, Texas) and Tyson Gay (Lexington, Kentucky) will challenge Jamaica's Asafa Powell and Canada's Andre DeGrasse to see who reigns supreme.

Tori Bowie (Hattiesburg, Mississippi), Jenna Prandini (Clovis, California) and Candyce McGrone (Indianapolis) are among the top Americans lining up against Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands in the women's 200m.

The men's and women's quartermilers will surely put the Hayward faithful on their feet Saturday, as LaShawn Merritt (Norfolk, Virginia) and defending Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada will go head-to-head Saturday in one of the featured matchups, along with Olympic gold medalists Sanya Richards-Ross (Austin, Texas), Francena McCorory (Hampton, Virginia) and Natasha Hastings (Brooklyn, New York) on the women's side. James narrowly leads the head-to-head matchup, 11-7.

Simpson-Rowbury rivalry renews

Olympians Jenny Simpson (Boulder, Colorado) and Shannon Rowbury (San Francisco, California) meet an another familiar 1,500 as the two duel once again at Hayward Field. Simpson, the 2014 Diamond League champion, leads the all-time series over Rowbury in the 1500m, 14-6. This is Rowbury's first foray into Diamond League action in 2016.

Find full start lists here and join the conversation by following USATF on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and using the hashtag #PreClassic.

Nike Prefontaine Classic – All times local (PT)

Friday, May 27
6:55 PM	Men's Hammer Throw	Kibwe Johnson
8:11 PM	Women's Long Jump	Brittney Reese, Tianna Bartoletta, Janay DeLoach
8:15 PM	Women's Discus	Gia Lewis-Smallwood, Whitney Ashley
8:18 PM	Men's Shot Put	Joe Kovacs, Jordan Clarke, Ryan Crouser, Reese Hoffa, Ryan Whiting
8:20 PM	USATF.TV +PLUS Webcast Begins
8:37 PM	USATF High Performance Women's 800m	Alysia Montano, Molly Ludlow, Laura Roesler, Chanelle Price, McKayla Fricker, Kate Grace, Charlene Lipsey, Chrishuna Williams
8:52 PM	Women's 5,000m	Kim Conley, Molly Huddle, Heather Kampf, Nicole Tully, Lauren Wallace
9:18 PM	Men's 10,000m	Chris Derrick, German Fernandez, Eric Jenkins

Saturday, May 28
12:15 PM	Men's Triple Jump	Will Claye, Chris Carter, Christian Taylor, Omar Craddock, Marquis Dendy
12:18 PM	Men's Pole Vault	Sam Kendricks
12:30 PM	NBCSN Broadcast Begins
12:33 PM	Men's 110m Hurdles	Jarret Eaton, Aries Merritt, David Oliver, Jeff Porter
12:53 PM	Women's 100m	TBD
1:03 PM	400m Hurdles	Kerron Clement, Bershawn Jackson, Michael Tinsley
1:09 PM	Women's High Jump	Vashti Cunningham, Chaunte Lowe
1:12 PM	3,000m Women's Steeplechase	Emma Coburn, Ashley Higginson, Shalaya Kipp, Leah O'Connor
1:26 PM	Men's 800m	Harun Abda, Boris Berian, Andrew Wheating
1:32 PM	Men's Javelin	Cyrus Hostetler
1:35 PM	Men's 400m	LaShawn Merritt
1:43 PM	Men's 5000m	Sam Chelanga, Paul Chelimo, Ryan Hill, Bernard Lagat, Hassan Mead, Ben True
2:04 PM	Women's 200m	Joanna Atkins, Tori Bowie, Kimberlyn Duncan, Candyce McGrone, Jenna Prandini, Kaylin Whitney
2:13 PM	Men's 100m	Justin Gatlin, Tyson Gay, Mike Rodgers, Ameer Webb
2:22 PM	Women's 1,500m	Alexa Efraimson, Shelby Houlihan, Brenda Martinez, Treniere Moser, Chanelle Price, Shannon Rowbury, Jenny Simpson
2:33 PM	Women's 100m Hurdles	Nia Ali, Dawn Harper-Nelson, Kendra Harrison, Brianna Rollins, Jasmin Stowers
2:42 PM	Women's 400m	Natasha Hastings, Quanera Hayes, Francena McCorory, Sanya Richards-Ross, Ashley Spencer
2:51 PM	Bowerman Men's Mile	Ben Blankenship, Drew Hunter, Evan Jager
3:00 PM	USATF.TV's The Cool Down Begins

Christa Mann
Marketing & Communications Manager
USA Track & Field
317.713.4672
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