Prefontaine Traditional 2025: The highest storylines to observe at historic observe and area meet

It’s an enormous weekend of racing on the sports activities calendar. There’s the beginning of the Tour de France, the Components 1 British Grand Prix in Silverstone, and the fiftieth version of the Prefontaine Traditional at Hayward Area in Eugene, Oregon. Named in reminiscence of the legendary American long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine, the Prefontaine Traditional has change into one of many premier annual international observe and area meets and doubles as the one American cease on the Diamond League circuit.

If you happen to beloved observe and area ultimately 12 months’s Olympics, you’re in for a deal with. There are over 60 Olympic and Paralympic medalists from the Paris Video games, with 5 full podium rematches on faucet. This meet is so loaded that an excellent ladies’s 100-meter hurdles isn’t within the two-hour tv window. Let’s have a look at a number of the prime storylines and athletes to observe this Saturday.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone checks herself within the 400 meters

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McLaughlin-Levrone is definitely the GOAT of the ladies’s 400m hurdles, however her versatility is outstanding. She’s one of many 12 quickest 400m flat runners ever and even beat eventual Olympic champion Gabby Thomas in a 200m race final 12 months. The 25-year-old was scheduled for the 200m/400m double at (the ill-fated?) Grand Slam Observe in Los Angeles earlier than the meet was cancelled.

We gained’t see Dominican Olympic champion Mareiledy Paulino or Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser, the highest two 400m runners proper now. It’s however an excellent area that features Individuals Alexis Holmes and 2025 NCAA champion Aliyah Butler, plus 2023 NCAA champ Rhasidat Adeleke of Eire. McLaughlin-Levrone has the quickest private finest and solely must shave 0.05 seconds off that to eclipse Sanya Richards-Ross’ 19-year-old American report of 48.70.

A Paris podium rematch within the ladies’s 100 meters

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That is the primary showdown for this trio since Paris. Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred’s historic gold made her the Caribbean nation’s first ever Olympic medalist. Sha’Carri Richardson took silver earlier than profitable gold because the USA anchor leg within the 4x100m relay. Her compatriot Melissa Jefferson-Picket has been very good, boasting the quickest time in 2025 at 10.73 seconds, making her one of many prime 10 quickest ladies ever.

Sha’Carri is likely to be the largest star however her solely race this 12 months was a fourth-place exhibiting in Tokyo. On present type, the favorites are Alfred and Jefferson-Picket, but when Richardson brings her finest then we’ll have a thriller. Alfred’s coaching associate Dina Asher-Smith of Nice Britain and Jamaican champion Tina Clayton are among the many athletes who might pull a shock.

Kishane Thompson, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt successor?

The powerfully constructed Thompson simply booked his spot on this September’s World Championships in Tokyo by working 9.75 seconds within the Jamaican championships, a time solely 5 others have achieved.

Thompson avenging his slender Olympic defeat to Noah Lyles must wait, however on paper he’s the category of this race, which may have former world champion Christian Coleman, fellow American Trayvon Bromell, plus Jamaica’s Ackeem Blake.

Center-distance Magic: Religion Kipyegon within the 1500m, Athing Mu-Nikolayev within the 800m, and a stacked Bowerman Mile

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Kenyan icon Religion Kipyegon unsuccessfully tried changing into the primary girl to run a sub-4-minute mile in final week’s particular Nike-orchestrated time trial. I suppose she’ll need to accept solely having the ladies’s mile and 1500m world information, plus three Olympic and World Championship 1500m golds. Rescheduled because the meet’s last race, Kipyegon is aiming to decrease her 3:49.04 1500m WR towards a stacked area that features American Nikki Hiltz, Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji, in addition to Paris medalists Jess Hull of Australia and Britain’s Georgia Hunter-Bell.

Within the newly named Mutola 800 meters (in honor of Mozambican 800m nice Maria Mutola), Athing Mu-Nikolayev returns to the scene of her heartbreaking fall in final 12 months’s US trials, which price her a spot in Paris. The long-striding Tokyo Olympic champ hasn’t raced an 800 this 12 months, as an alternative competing in 1500 and 5000m races. She informed SB Nation on Thursday that she had deliberate to run within the NYC Grand Prix final month earlier than it was cancelled, so this can be a important take a look at for her. Key contenders right here embrace Kenya’s Mary Moraa, Paris silver medalist Tsige Duguma of Ethiopia, and reigning world indoor champion Prudence Sekgodiso of South Africa.

A Prefontaine Traditional custom is the Bowerman Mile, named after celebrated observe coach and Nike co-founder Invoice Bowerman. Cole Hocker shocked the world in 2024 by besting Norwegian phenom Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Britain’s Josh Kerr (neither of whom is on this race) for an surprising American gold within the 1500 meters. The robust American contingent consists of Olympic bronze medalist (and former indoor world report miler) Yared Nuguse, 5k/10k double Olympic bronze medalist Grant Fisher, and younger star Hobbs Kessler. French nationwide report holder Azeddine Habz, a late bloomer at 31, has 2025’s quickest 1500m time. Hocker, Nuguse, and Habbz are among the many prime contenders, however this thrilling period of middle-distance racing may be very unpredictable.

One other world report (and $100,000) for Mondo Duplantis?

The boys’s pole vaulting GOAT is all the time reaching new heights. The American-born Swede surpassed Renaud Lavillenie’s world report in 2020 at 6.17m (20 ft, 2 ³⁄₄ in) and has since set a brand new prime mark 11 extra occasions on his technique to 6.28m (20 ft, 7 in) in Stockholm.

Every new world report earns the ex-LSU star a $100,000 bonus from World Athletics, so this strategy has netted Duplantis over $1 million. Count on a 6.29m attempt on Saturday from… Carmy Berzatto?

Daughter of former WWE and UFC famous person goes professional

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Mya Lesnar—sure, the daughter of former NCAA wrestling, WWE, and UFC champion Brock Lesnar—is popping professional after closing her embellished Colorado State profession with an NCAA shot put title. Her current private finest 19.60m (64 ft, 3 ³⁄₄ in) throw would’ve gained bronze in Paris. Don’t count on a win towards elite competitors like German Olympic champion Yemisi Ogunleye or America’s two-time world champion Chase Jackson (who simply improved her American report to twenty.95m final week), however Lesnar is a critical expertise who will look to make Group USA’s World Championship roster later this month.

4 different notable occasions to observe

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• Males’s 200 meters: Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo and USA’s Kenny Bednarek went 1-2 in Paris, over Noah Lyles. ‘Kung Fu’ Kenny swept the 100 and 200 in all three Grand Slam Observe meets, whereas Tebogo’s season has been considerably disrupted as a result of harm.
• Males’s 400 meters: Kansas Metropolis’s Quincy Corridor is must-watch for his unbelievable comebacks, most notably towards Nice Britain’s Matt Hudson-Smith within the Olympic last. That is their first assembly since that epic end, with Zambia’s Muzala Samukonga making it a full podium rematch.
• Males’s 400-meter hurdles: Olympic champion and American report holder Rai Benjamin has shaped a gripping rivalry with Brazil’s Alison dos Santos and Norwegian world report holder Karsten Warholm. Rai beat each in Stockholm, however Warholm gained’t be on this one.
• Girls’s 5000 meters: The Kenya vs. Ethiopia rivalry is renewed between double Olympic champ Beatrice Chebet and two-time world champion Gudaf Tsegay. Chebet set the 10k world report in final 12 months’s Prefontaine Traditional, whereas Tsegay has the 5k report, however the Kenyan is scorching on her heels after her No. 2 all-time run within the Rome Diamond League.

What time is the 2025 Prefontaine Traditional?

The Prefontaine Traditional airs stay on NBC and Peacock on Saturday, July 5 at 4 pm ET/1 pm PT, with USATF.television broadcasting preliminary occasions at 1 pm ET/10 am PT. SB Nation will likely be offering on-site protection from Eugene. Right here’s the timetable for all the competitions.