Eugene, Oregon (6/2/08)
At last year's Prefontaine Classic, Oregon Track Club Elite’s Nick Symmonds thrilled a disbelieving sold-out Hayward Field by overtaking Olympic
gold medalist Yuriy Borzakovskiy in the final strides of the 800
meters. Symmonds is back for next Sunday's 34th Prefontaine Classic,
this time facing a well-known foe in Khadevis Robinson, ranked No. 1 in the U.S. for the past three years, and Bahrain's, Youssef Kamel,
who was ranked No. 5 in the world by Track & Field News. Last
Saturday, Kamel narrowly beat Robinson by 2 one-hundredths at New York
on Saturday, 1:45.53 to 1:45.55. Just behind them was Canadian
recordholder Gary Reed, who ranked No. 9 in the world in 2007. And in between Kamel and Reed in the rankings last year was Alfred Kirwa Yego of Kenya (No. 7 world), who ran 1:44.99 in Berlin on Saturday. Thus, 3
of last year's world top 10, plus America's No. 1 and No. 2 descend on
Hayward Field next Sunday sort out who is best on the day.