Track’s King James Takes Center Stage At Pre Classic
Press Release
May 28, 2013
Eugene, Oregon – Kirani James has conquered the world’s best every year since he was 16 years old when he began a 4-year run that saw him become the World Youth champion, World Junior champion, World champion, and Olympic champion. Still only 20, the Alabama alum headlines the loaded men’s 400-meter race at the Prefontaine Classic.
The 39th Pre Classic, a member of the IAAF Diamond League of elite international track & field meets, will be held May 31 and June 1 at historic Hayward Field. The men’s 400 is one of the many highlights of a power-packed Saturday schedule that begins at 12:00 noon.
While every event at the Pre Classic is special, James still attracts attention. He is already a celebrity in his native Grenada. James carried his country’s flag in the London Olympics’ opening ceremonies. After winning Grenada’s first-ever Olympic medal of any color in any sport, he returned home to wild celebration. A day and a boulevard were named in his honor at the age of 19.
Still, James is eager to enter elite territory. Only two men have won more than one gold medal at the Olympics or World Championships. One is American Jeremy Wariner, winner of the 2005 and 2007 World Championships. The other is world record holder Michael Johnson, who has 2 Olympic and 4 World Championship golds. MJ also owns the fastest-ever lap at Hayward Field at 43.74 in 1993.
But James is not the fastest in the incredibly stacked Pre Classic field. That distinction belongs to American LaShawn Merritt at 43.75, which earned him the 2008 Olympic gold medal. Merritt and Michael Johnson are the only humans to have run under 44 seconds in the 400 meters and also under 20 seconds in the 200. Merritt was the 2009 World Championships champ and was silver medalist to an 18-year-old James at the World Championships in 2011.
The Pre Classic reunites a unique set of London Olympic 400-meter medalists. For the first time in the men’s 400, none were from the U.S. or any country in Europe, and while all three were from islands in the Caribbean, none were from Jamaica.
Luguelin Santos earned the silver medal in London as an 18-year-old, a month after winning the World Junior Championships. He is already the fastest ever from the Dominican Republic at 44.45. Lalonde Gordon, 24, was the London bronze medalist and is Trinidad’s 2nd-fastest 400-meter runner at 44.52. Gordon was born on the island of Tobago and studied at Mohawk Valley Community College in New York before beginning a long road to success in 2009, only reaching world-ranking level last year.
Then there is experience. Chris Brown, 34, has plenty of it, so much so that he carried his country’s flag in London and there is a meet in his native Bahamas named after him. The inaugural Chris Brown Bahamas Invitational was held in Nassau on April 13 with an impressive collection of talent. And Brown can still run fast. Last summer he was about a foot away from an Olympic medal, finishing 4th in London. Brown already had bronze (2000) and silver (2008) medals. He completed the collection by leading off a 4×400 team that won Olympic gold, the first by the Bahamas in any men’s sport.
Eagerness knows no boundaries. Belgium’s Kevin Borlee, 25, studied at Florida State. He ran his best last year, a national record 44.56, and owns a bronze medal from the 2011 World Championships.
American Tony McQuay is from rival University of Florida. The 23-year-old won the 2011 U.S. title and finished 2nd in a PR 44.49 at last year’s Olympic Trials in Eugene.
Pavel Maslak of the Czech Republic, 22, is the reigning European Champion. Yet another national record holder, he will be running in the U.S. for the first time.
| Men’s 400 Meters | Personal Best | |
| LaShawn Merritt (USA) | 43.75 | |
| Kirani James (Grenada) | 43.94 | |
| Chris Brown (Bahamas) | 44.40 | |
| Luguelin Santos (Dominican Republic) | 44.45 | |
| Tony McQuay (USA) | 44.49 | |
| Lalonde Gordon (Trinidad & Tobago) | 44.52 | |
| Kevin Borlee (Belgium) | 44.56 | |
| Pavel Maslak (Czech Republic) | 44.91 | |
Fans can follow the event lineups as all announced fields are posted at PreClassic.com. The direct link to current start/entry lists is HERE and includes updates to previously announced fields.
Some Tickets remain for the 39th annual edition of the Prefontaine Classic. They
are available now from PreClassic.com and from 1-800-WEBFOOT. Sponsored by NIKE continuously since 1984, the Prefontaine Classic will be shown live to an international audience and by NBC Sports from 1:30 till 3:00 p.m. PT on June 1st.
The Prefontaine Classic is the longest-running outdoor invitational track and field meet in America and is part of the elite IAAF Diamond League of meets held worldwide annually. Last year’s Pre Classic presented the most 2012 Olympic gold medalists (20) of any invitational meet in the world.
Steve Prefontaine is a legend in the sport of track & field and is perhaps the most inspirational distance runner in American history. Many call him the greatest ever. He set a national high school 2-mile record (8:41.5) while at Marshfield High School in Coos Bay, Oregon, that is the fastest ever in a National Federation-sanctioned race. While competing for the University of Oregon, he won national cross country championships (3) and outdoor track 3-Mile/5000-meter championships (4) every time he competed. As a collegiate junior, he made the 1972 U.S. Olympic Team and nearly won an Olympic medal, finishing 4th in the 5K at the 1972 Munich Olympics, at age 22. After finishing college in 1973 and preparing for a return to the Olympics in 1976, he continued to improve, setting many American records. His life ended tragically on May 30, 1975, the result of an auto accident, at age 24. The Pre Classic began soon after and has been held every year since.