This Pre's a Classic

The old standard question, Where do I start?
In a meet where SEVERAL events were BELOW expected Diamond League standards, the ones that produced gave me more than enough material to limit this post to just the Prefontaine Classic.
So let's begin where abundance ruled the day!

It was the Women's Two Mile that took me about one full hour of T&F Record Book revisions to do.

This event is so rarely run, and had such a loaded field, it would have taken a natural disaster or the event's cancellation for my record book to survive the onslaught.

But the World Record, and the American Record (See details below!), were left intact!
The first 9 women entered (or improved their place on) my A-T World list.
All 5 American finishers made the VERY weak US list

Mercy Cherono won the parade with the Pre Meet Record and Kenyan National Record time of 9:13.27.
She's now 3rd A-T World.

Viola Kibowot improved her best by about 4 seconds, running 9:13.48 in 2nd.
It's an Age 30 record, and is the best 2nd Place mark ever.
She moves to 4th A-T World.

Mimi Belete finished in 9:13.85, the best 3rd place mark ever.
She also gets the Age 25 record and the Bahrain National Record.
She's 5th A-T World.

Now here's where there's some debate.
Shannon Rowbury finished as 1st American, with her time of 9:20.25.
SOME, including USATF, say her time is the American Record!
Not so!
Regina Jacobs ran 9:11.97 in a mixed race in 1999, and is generally credited with the AR.
At least 2 other mixed race marks make my lists.
Cathy (Schirro) O'Brien's 16:00.4 while in HS makes my HS 5000 list.
As does Cayla Hatton's mixed race 10000 of 33:17.28.
Both of those marks are also listed in Jack Shepard's HS Track book.
Thus, I accept Jacobs's mark as the AR.
And so Rowbury's time makes her "just" 2nd A-T US!!
However, she does get the Age 29 record, and rates as 9th A-T on the World list!
(Also, there's a better 4th place mark from 2007!)

Sally Kipyego's 9:22.10 is 11th A-T World, and the best 5th place mark ever!
(Remember, she ran 9:21.04 indoors this winter, beating that infamous lap-mis-counter, Jenny Simpson!)

Belaynesh Oljira is now 13th A-T World, and the best 6th place time ever.
She ran 9:23.32.

Margaret Muriuki's 9:24.89 is 14th A-T World and the best 7th place mark ever.

Betsy Saina ran 9:26.63 for the best 8th place mark ever, and 15th on the World list.

Jordan Hasay was way behind Saina, but ran a slight PR (over her indoor time), hitting 9:35.05.
It's the best 9th place mark ever.
She's 5th A-T US, and 20th A-T World.
But she misses the Age 22 record by a mere 0.01 seconds!!

Buze Diriba ran 9:40.01 for the Age 20 record and the best 10th place mark ever.
(My Place marks for the 2 Mile goes through just 10th place, but Maryam Jamal's 9:40.04 is definitely the best 11th place mark ever!)

Besides Rowbury and Hasay, 3 more Americans made the US list.
Chelsea Reilly ran 9:42.51 for 7th A-T US.
Laura Thweatt ran 9:44.46 for 10th A-T US.
And Brie Felnagle's 9:54.61 puts her in 14th place A-T US.
(BTW, Aisling Cuffe's HSR of 9:54.22 makes her 13th A-T US!!)
Finally, two folks cut OFF my lists by this invasion were Francie Larrieu's 1972 mark and Lynn Bjorklund's 1975 time!

The middle and long distance races ruled the roost this year at Pre, as befits the meet's namesake!

Galen Rupp, a former Duck, and Oregon icon, broke his own American Record over 10000 meters in the Friday night session.
His 26:44.36 broke his old mark by 3.64 seconds.
And he had some company!

Hitting halfway at about 13:26, he had only Africans in front of him.
He looked to be running SOOOOO easy that I thought he'd take over from the rabbits earlier than he did.
Running a 13:18 second half, and a last 800 of 1:58, he finished to the loudest cheers from the crowd of 8 or 9 thousand!

He moved up one place on the A-T World list, from 16th to 15th.

Paul Tanui ran 26:49.41 for 22nd A-T World!

Two others broke 27:00.

The next day's Men's 5000 was so boringly slow (even though it was won in 13:01) that Rupp's halves would have placed him 12th and 10th in that race!!
Even the Age 39 record survived Bernard Lagat's jog of 13:31 and change!!

Emma Coburn continued her barrier-hurdling (Such a sweet pun!!!  LOL) season with another 3000SC PR.
She ran 9:17.84 for 3rd, but clipped her former best by about 2 seconds.
She remains 2nd fastest American A-T, but enters the World DDD in 22nd place!
Jenny Simpson, the AR holder, is 11th on the World list.

Speaking of the former Ms Barringer, she got a great PR in the stacked 1500 race, running 3:58.28 in fourth, behind Helen Obiri, Abeba Aregawi, and Faith Kipyegon.
She moves up from  5th A-T US to 3rd, behind only Mary Slaney and Suzy Hamilton.

Obiri ran 3:57.05 for the Prefontaine Meet Record
But her time misses my Top 24 World list by 0.40.
However, adding her 8:20.68 time to this one, she becomes the 5th fastest Combined 1500-3000 runner ever, her total time being 12:17.73.

Sifan Hassan's 3:59.38 breaks her own Netherlands National Record.

The Bowerman Mile came through again as (one of) the star attractions.

Ayanleh Souleiman surprised Asbel Kiprop and Company, running a Pre Meet Record time of 3:47.32 for the win.
(I don't have the 1500 splits, but I expect he broke the MR there too, it being just 3:32.81.  I expect he passed 1500 enroute in about 3:32.5 or faster!)
It's the Djibouti National Record.
It rates him 10th A-T World, just ahead (by 0.01) of Mr Sebastian Coe!!

Silas Kiplagat ran 3:47.88.
He's now 15th A-T World, tied with 1 other.

Aman Wote's 3:48.60 is the new Ethiopian National Record.

Collins Cheboi's 3:49.56 is the best 6th place time ever.

Asbel Kiprop, the expected winner, finished just 7th in 3:50.26, but that placing is the best 7th ever!

Matthew Centrowitz got a PR, time of 3:50.53.
It's the best 8th place mark ever.
And he moves from 18th A-T US up to 9th!!

Johan Cronje's 3:50.70 is the new South Africa National Record.
It's also the best 9th place mark ever.

Bethwell Birgen's 3:51.12 is the best-ever 10th place mark.

And Henrik Ingebrigtsen nabs the Norwegian National record with his 3:53.62.

To finish off the middle/long distance material from Pre, how about Nijel Amos's "upset" of WR-holder David Rudisha in the 800, his 1:43.63 being the new Pre Meet Record!

Speaking of upsets, how about that Tori Bowie!!!

She tore through 200 meters in a HUGE PR time of 22.18, making her 16th A-T US, tied with 1 other!!
But look who she beat!!
None other than Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Allyson Felix, among others!!

Felix, returning from injury, ran a creditable 22.44 in 3rd.
But that Jamaican cutie, best known as SAFP, ran just 23.06 in....LAST place!!!

Chris Brown continues his Age 35 record-breaking, getting his own 400 best with a 45.15.
And I expect he'll eventually move that mark under 45 seconds!

While the track events were dominant, three field eventers made their presence known.

Sandra Perkovic got the Meet Record with her Discus toss of 227-5.

Will Claye Triple Jumped 57-11.75 for the Meet Record.
He moves from 11th A-T US up to 8th!

And Reese Hoffa got the Age 36 Shot Put record with his 71-0 win.

I'll have all the other records and marks of interest from this weekend probably tomorrow morning!!