9 Thoughts on the 2025 Prefontaine Classic, Including Athing Mu’s Rough Return & Niels Laros’ Big Win

With a ton of the sport’s top stars competing, the 2025 Prefontaine Classic on Saturday at Hayward Field featured a number of races with potentially massive implications for this year’s USATF Outdoor Championships (July 31-August 3) and World Athletics Championships (September 13-21). On a beautiful day in Eugene in front of a sold-out crowd, Kenyans Beatrice Chebet and Faith Kipyegon were the stars of the show as the duo broke world records in the 5,000 and 1500 meters, and we have a separate article on their heroics here.

Overall the action was so good, we recorded an emergency live reaction video show which you can find here:

If you want this on your favorite podcast player look below:

Below, nine thoughts on the rest of the meet at Prefontaine, including Niels Laros‘s huge win in the Bowerman Mile, Athing Mu-Nikolayev‘s rough return to the 800, and a very fast 100 for Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Julien Alfred (but not for Sha’Carri Richardson).

*Full results

1) Niels Laros has arrived

After racking up European U18 and U20 titles, Dutchman Niels Laros announced himself at the senior level in 2023, making the 1500 final at Worlds at the age of 18 and running fearlessly on the shoulders of Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr at the bell. Laros faded to 10th in that race but improved to 6th at the Olympics last year, running 3:29.54 in the final despite a late start to the year due to injury. There was still a significant gap to the medalists — 1.74 seconds — but given Laros’ age, it looked a matter of when, not if, Laros would be contending for medals.

Kevin Morris photo

It appears Laros’ time has now come. Today’s Bowerman Mile featured Olympic medalists Yared Nuguse and Cole Hocker, as well as 1500m world leader Azeddine Habz (3:27.49 sb), and Laros beat them all, moving from 12th to 1st over the final 500 meters and nipping Nuguse at the line to win an instant classic, 3:45.94 to 3:45.95 in Laros’ first 1500/mile race of the year.

Laros was stunned to have earned his first Diamond League win.

“I feel great, you saying ‘winner of the Bowerman Mile’ doesn’t really sound real to me right now, so I’m just amazed by how the race went,” Laros told meet organizers. “I talked to my coach yesterday and because it’s my opening 1500/mile of the season, I wasn’t so confident. He said let’s see. And, I mean, winning here takes a miracle, but then he said ‘but you’re a special boy, so I wouldn’t be surprised,’ and he was right…I showed in Paris that I belong there and now I think everyone knows. I’m excited to be battling for medals, and I’m still young so I’m excited for what’s ahead.”

The manner of victory could not have been more dramatic. Laros trailed Nuguse by 3.1 seconds at 1200 meters, and the gap was still 2.6 seconds with 200 to go. At that point, however, Laros launched into an enormous kick, splitting 25.9 from 1400 to 1600 (12.7 from 1500 to 1600) to run Nuguse down. That sort of speed at the end of a fast race is exactly how you win global 1500 titles in the 2020s.

We may be getting ahead of ourselves, but it is worth pointing out that, since 2017, the six global men’s 1500 finals have featured six different winners. If that no-repeat streak is extended 2025, Laros may be the guy to do it. At the very least, he should be a serious medal contender in Tokyo.

MB: Niels MF Laros. Steals it from Nuguse. Bowerman mile win 3:45.94!!!

2) Yared Nuguse ran bravely for the win in the Bowerman Mile but ran out of gas

Nuguse may have come just shy of the win, ensuring that Americans’ winless streak in the Bowerman Mile will reach 20 years in 2026, but he has nothing to be ashamed of as he ran a race that the meet’s namesake, Steve Prefontaine, would have been very proud of. With no Jakob Ingebrigtsen to push the pace, Nuguse stepped up and did it himself, hitting 800 behind the pacer in 1:51.4 (3:44.05 mile pace). He slowed to 56.9 for his next lap but still hit 1200 in 2:48.3 (3:45.66), at which point he had dropped the entire field save for Habz.

But the final lap proved an almighty struggle. Nuguse, gritting his teeth, did his best to hold on, going 14.0-14.0-14.1-14.2 from 1200 to 1600 (56.3), and had this been a 1600, Nuguse would have won it. But it was a mile, which meant he had to settle for 2nd.

Nuguse did commit one tactical error, drifting from the rail to the outside of lane 2 in the final straight — if he does not do that, Laros does not have room to pass him at the end. But to be fair to Nuguse, it is hard to remain focused on driving forward in a straight line when you are as exhausted as he was in the final 100.

With less than a month until USAs, Nuguse is in a very good spot. Clearly, he is very fit, and he came just .01 from winning one of the most competitive races of the year.

“I feel like I went out there and gave it everything I had, which at the end of the day is what I really wanted to do,” Nuguse said.

Nuguse’s fellow Olympic medalist Hocker was 4th in 3:47.43, a personal best and three-spot improvement on his result from last year. Hocker’s wait for a first DL win will go on, but this was a solid result for a guy who likes to peak hard late in the season.

3) Today was bad news for Hobbs Kessler

Kessler entered this season in a similar position to Laros, hoping to use a strong Olympic showing in 2024 as a springboard to contention in 2025 (Kessler was 5th in Paris, one spot ahead of Laros). Kessler made progress in the 2025 indoor season, running a 3:46 mile and winning USAs in the 1500 and 3000, but today was a step backward. While Laros was winning the race, Kessler was back in 10th place in 3:48.32, one spot behind 5k/10k man Grant Fisher (3:48.29).

Kessler was hoping to contend for a medal at Worlds this year, but given how he ran today and how good Ethan Strand looked in winning the B heat (a comfortable 3:48.86), there’s a greater chance Kessler misses the US team entirely than there is of him standing on the podium in Tokyo.

4) Athing Mu-Nikolayev’s return to the 800 could not have gone worse

In the women’s 800, all eyes were on Athing Mu-Nikolayev as the 2021 Olympic and 2022 world champ raced the distance for the first time since July 2024. With only three low-profile overdistance races so far in 2025, today was a serious step up in speed and competition for Mu-Nikolayev, and she looked completely overmatched. She got out slowly (she was last at 300m), and though she tried to move up a bit at the bell, she never got higher than 8th place. She had nothing left over the final 200 and wound up last in 2:03.44. Excluding her fall at last year’s Olympic Trials, it was Mu-Nikolayev’s slowest time since the SEC indoor prelims in February 2021.

Mu-Nikolayev did not fall today and did not get injured, but other than that, there were no positives to take from this race, except for her cheery post-race interview, where she said all the right things. While Mu-Nikolayev said that she is fully healthy, she does not appear to have anywhere close to her medal-winning level of fitness from 2021-23. Even last year, when she missed the spring racing season due to a torn hamstring, she still managed to run 1:58 at the Olympic Trials. Today, she was not even close to that.

Mu-Nikolayev’s shortcomings were laid bare on Saturday. She remains incredibly uncomfortable running in packs (those tuneup races earlier this season could not mimic the speed of a Diamond League 800) and consistently ran extra distance on the outside to minimize the possibility of contact, even when she was at the very back of the field. In her prime, Mu-Nikolayev consistently gave up time by running wide on turns from the front, but her incredible level of fitness was usually enough to offset that disadvantage. On Saturday, she looked out of shape and tactically naive.

Given Mu-Nikolayev’s age (23) and incredible natural ability, it is too early to completely write off her 2025 season. This was her first 800 of the year; she has 26 days to turn things around before the first round of the US championships (and yes, she will be able to compete there — her 1:58 from last year’s Trials falls within the qualifying window). It is not inconceivable that she could still make the team, particularly since all three 2024 Olympians (Nia Akins, Juliette Whittaker, Allie Wilson) face questions of their own.

But if Mu-Nikolayev does not start to improve quickly, she will have some serious decisions to make about her career, starting with whether to stick with her coach Bobby Kersee. A switch back to the man who coached her to Olympic gold, Milton Mallard, wouldn’t even require Mu-Nikolayev to move from Los Angeles as Mallard is now coaching at USC.

5) Biniam Mehary impresses as Ethiopian/Kenyan teams appear to be set in men’s 10,000m

The men’s 10,000 was billed as the Kenyan trials for this year’s World Championships, and while 11 of the 17 finishers were Kenyan, this was a race dominated by Ethiopians. The final 100 meters came down to a three-way sprint between three Ethiopians – 2024 Olympic silver medalist Berihu Aregawi, 2021 Olympic champion Selemon Barega, and last year’s Olympic 5,000m 6th placer Biniam Mehary. And it was Mehary, the youngest and least-accomplished of the three, who earned the victory in a world-leading 26:43.82. Mehary, who is officially just 18 years old, closed in a hair under 55 seconds to edge out Aregawi by .02, with Barega close behind in 26:44.13.

Officially, this was not the Ethiopian Worlds trials, and the capricious Ethiopian federation could still decide to stage one at the last minute. But the guess here is that Aregawi, Barega, and Mehary will be the three to represent Ethiopia in Tokyo. In the absence of a trials, the Ethiopian federation has historically relied on season’s bests to pick teams, and it’s unlikely there will be a 10,000 fast enough in the next two months for someone like Yomif Kejelcha (who did not race) and Hagos Gebrhiwet (a DNS) to surpass their times. Earlier this year, Ethiopia’s Telahun Bekele did run 10,000 meters in about 26:41 at The Ten, but since he missed the start, his official time was 26:52.79, so we imagine he’ll be left off as well.

A little farther back, Edwin Kurgat of Under Armour Dark Sky Distance ran a smart race to take 4th in a pb of 26:46.35, followed by NCAA champion Ishmael Kipkurui in 26:47.72 (who just signed a pro deal with Nike) and 2024 World XC bronze medalist Benson Kiplangat (26:50.00). American marathoner Conner Mantz was 12th in a somewhat disappointing 27:35.22.

Today’s win was a nice one for Mehary and while it’s too early to say he has completely surpassed Aregawi given how close today’s finish was, he has progressed rapidly in a very short period. At the start of 2024, Mehary had a grand total of three results on his Tilastopaja profile, none before May 2023. Last year, he ran 26:37 and missed out on an Olympic 10,000 spot by three seconds. Today, he just beat two of the best distance runners of his generation. With a natural, bouncy stride, he should be one of the best in the world for a long time. 

Barega also showed he is still a factor on the track after running 2:05:15 to win his marathon debut in Seville in February. All three Ethiopians should be legitimate medal threats in Tokyo.

One complaint: setting the Wavelight to WR pace (26:11.00) in this race was completely unnecessary. The leaders hit 3k on WR pace in 7:51 but then the rabbit dropped and immediately slowed. 

Last year’s Pre Classic saw a world record in the women’s 10,000, but in that case it made sense as you had two women in WR shape and one of them (Gudaf Tsegay) willing to actually try to run WR pace when the pacers departed. No one had any interest in running WR pace in the second half today (the 5k splits were 13:14-13:29). This was a trials race. Just set the lights to the world standard (27:00) and let the field duke it out from there.

6) Melissa Jefferson-Wooden earns one of the biggest wins of her career

Olympic bronze medalist Melissa Jefferson-Wooden has spent 2025 dominating in Grand Slam Track but faced her biggest test on Saturday against Olympic champion Julien Alfred, who was also undefeated in 100m races this year. It went down to the wire, but MJW had just enough to hold off Alfred, 10.75 to 10.77, to earn her first career Diamond League win.

As if that was not impressive enough, the race was run into a 1.5 m/s headwind.

Using Jonas Mureika‘s sprint conversion calculator, those times are worth 10.64 and 10.66 in still conditions. They are the fastest times ever run into a wind of at least 1.0 m/s.

Fastest women’s 100m time into a headwind of at least 1.0 m/s

Reigning world champion Sha’Carri Richardson, racing for just the second time in 2025, ran 11.19, an improvement on her abysmal 11.47 season opener in Tokyo, but still finished in last place. Richardson, who said she has been behind schedule this year after an injury in February, was just grateful to have made it through the race in one piece. With a bye to Worlds as the reigning champion, Richardson also said she plans on running the 200 only at USAs.

“The only motivation that I had today was having a healthy race and the fact that I execute a healthy race knowing that now I have the time, because I do have that bye being the reigning world champion, and all I have to do is just keep pushing and focusing in our practice, so I’m super excited to just finish,” Richardson said.

7) Winfred Yavi scares the steeple WR and earns a big win over Faith Cherotich

Courtesy Diamond League AG

After Olympic bronze medalist Faith Cherotich outkicked gold medalist Yavi in Doha and Oslo to begin the season, it was looking as if there had been a changing of the guard in the women’s steeplechase.

Not so fast.

Yavi put Cherotich and the rest of the world on notice today by running 8:45.25 to win convincingly in Eugene and come less than a second shy of Beatrice Chepkoech‘s 8:44.32 world record. Cherotich ran great herself — a 4+ second pb of 8:48.71 for 2nd — but Yavi was just too good for her. Cherotich now ranks 4th on the all-time list while Yavi owns the #2 and #3 times in history (she also ran 8:44.39 in Rome last year).

Hayward Field is a great place to steeple as it has hosted 21 sub-9:00s — far more than any other track. Six of those came today, the most ever in a single race (the previous record was four from last year’s Olympic final in Paris). Notably, Norah Jeruto, was among that group, her first sub-9:00 since winning the world title at Hayward Field in 2022. Jeruto was provisionally suspended for ABP violations in 2023 but her suspension was eventually overturned at the end of that year by a World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal (CAS dismissed an appeal from the AIU in 2024). The 29-year-old Jeruto struggled in her return last year, with a fastest time of 9:08, but made a big improvement on that today.

Farther back, Gabbi Jennings ran a pb of 9:06.61 (#5 all-time US) to finish as top American in 6th in a race that featured most of the top US steeplechase contenders.

8) Letsile Tebogo shows he is back

The Olympic 200 champ started slowly this year before taking a month off from racing to heal an injury. In his first race since May 25, he looked like a completely different runner today, running a world-leading 19.76 in the 200 and mugging for the cameras after crossing the finish line. Unfortunately, the showdown with Kenny Bednarek will have to wait (Bednarek was a late scratch), but Tebogo showed he is going to be a force to be reckoned with once again in 2025.

9) Kishane Thompson takes care of business

While Olympic silver medalist Kishane Thompson entered the men’s 100 as the clear favorite after running 9.75 at the Jamaican trials last week – the fastest time in the world in 10 years – there was hope among American fans that Trayvon Bromell, who looked great in his last race in Rome (9.84 win), might be able to challenge him.

Instead, Thompson had a clear lead by halfway and was a dominant winner in 9.85 as Bromell could only manage 3rd in 9.94. With Noah Lyles going on almost three months since his last race, Thompson is the clear favorite for Worlds right now.

The one man who took a big step forward today was Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes. The bronze medalist at the 2023 Worlds, Hughes had not run faster than 10.05 (wind-legal) this year but closed well in the last 20m to take 2nd in 9.91, his fastest time since the 2023 Worlds final.

Talk about the meet on our world-famous messageboard.

• Official 2025 Prefontaine Classic Discussion Thread
• Nils MF Laros. Steals it from Nuguse. Bowerman mile win 3:45.94!!! Nuguse WENT for it but tied up and got nipped at the line. Hocker 4:37. Fisher 3:48.’
• Jefferson-Wooden (10.75) takes down Alfred (10.77) at 2025 Prefontaine Classic as Sha’Carri Richardson is DFL – 11.19
• Athing Mu-Nikolayev looks HORRIBLE. Runs 2:03.44 for DFL. Dugume wins in 1:57.20.
• To the women just lapped in the Pre Classic 5000, please turn in your pro cards What a race. Chebet led the whole thing and ran 13:58.06 WR!!
• Owen Powell 3:58.12 @ Pre Ethan Strand DOMINATED the B mile in 3:48.
• The Bowerman Mile has been bumped: 2025 Pre Classic will now finish with the women’s 1500 — WR incoming for Faith Kipyegon?

*Full results and video replays *LRC Post-Race Interviews *WA Full meet recap including field events

More: Beatrice Chebet (13:58.06) & Faith Kipyegon (3:48.68) Amaze With World Records at 2025 Pre Classic For the first time in 32 years, two outdoor women’s distance world records on the track fell on the same day. Chebet is the first woman under 14:00 for 5000m on the track while Kipyegon broke the 1500 record for the third time.