The 50th Prefontaine Classic is on Saturday, and as always, it is going to be a banger. We’ve already previewed three of the marquee events of the meet — the Bowerman Mile and men’s and women’s 100s — so make sure to check out those articles if you haven’t already. But the meet is so good — 17 Olympic champions! — that basically every event is going to be must-watch.
Here is what else you need to watch for ahead of the meet this weekend.
What: 2025 Prefontaine Classic
When: Saturday, July 5 (Bowerman Mile at 5:50 p.m. ET)
Where: Hayward Field, Eugene, Ore.
*TV/streaming information *Schedule/entries
Could we see the first women’s sub-14:00 on the track?
Nike spent the last month hyping one of its Kenyan stars’ attempts to break a round number barrier, and when Faith Kipyegon‘s attempt to break 4:00 in the mile fell well short, Nike’s tagline became, “Not if. When.”
That phrase is much more appropriate in the women’s 5,000, where another Kenyan Nike star, Beatrice Chebet, has been knocking on the door of another major barrier, 14:00 Chebet, the Olympic 5k/10k champ, has already broken 14:00 on the roads and has run 8:11 and 14:03 for 3k and 5k on the track in 2025. Chebet almost broke the 14:00.21 world record by accident in Rome last month — the pacing lights were set to 14:15, but she decided to pick it up in the last two kilometers because she was feeling good. After running 14:13 pace through 3k, she finished at 14:03 by going 2:47.8-2:44.7 for her last 2k.
After the race, Chebet said what we all knew: the world record is going down soon.
“I am capable of the world record,” Chebet said. “So now I am going home and will prepare for it. Everything is possible. If I get someone who will push me up to 3000, it is possible…Soon, I am going for the time under 14.”
Chebet headlines the women’s 5,000 at Pre, which doubles as the Kenyan World Championship trials. It is not an ideal situation to run fast — the race is in the middle of the day (1:20 p.m.
local), which means it will be sunny, warm (70s Fahrenheit), and a little windy (8-9 mph). But women’s world records have fallen at Pre in each of the last two years (Gudaf Tsegay in the 5,000 in 2023, Chebet in the 10,000 in 2024), and Chebet is so fit right now that she could conceivably break the WR even if conditions aren’t perfect.
Really what this comes down to is what Chebet — and Nike, who would love to see another world record at its flagship meet — wants to do. If she sets the pace lights to 14:05 or faster, the world record is probably history.
Beyond Chebet, there are 23 other runners in this race. That includes fellow Kenyan Agnes Ngetich, who has been brilliant on the Grand Slam Track circuit, as well as Ethiopians Tsegay, Medina Eisa, Birke Haylom, and Hirut Meshesha. Officially, this is the Kenyan trials, but it could end up doubling as the Ethiopian trials as well.
The selection criteria isn’t totally clear — the Ethiopian federation is not the best at communicating with athletes — but season’s bests are usually very important and this may be the best opportunity for the top Ethiopians to run a fast 5,000 in 2025.
There is one American in the field, Weini Kelati, and we’ve heard she is very fit right now. She won’t be close to Chebet, but it’s still worth keeping an eye on the clock. Kelati’s pb is 14:35.43 and the American record is Alicia Monson‘s 14:19.45.
Will Beatrice Chebet break 14:00 at the 2025 Pre Classic?
Kenyan (and Ethiopian?) trials in the men’s 10,000. Plus Conner Mantz.
Just like last year, Kenya will hold its men’s 10,000m trials at Pre, but the Kenyan field will not be nearly as strong. Defending champ Daniel Mateiko is not running.
Kenya’s top Olympic finisher, 5th placer Benard Kibet, was just provisionally suspended for ABP violations. 2023 Worlds silver medalist Daniel Ebenyo is not running either. The most intriguing Kenyan entrants are Stanley Mburu (2022 Worlds silver) and 20-year-old Ishmael Kipkurui, who just won the NCAA 10,000 title for New Mexico.
As in the women’s 5,000, this may end up serving as a de facto Ethiopian trials as well, and that is where things get really interesting. Olympic silver medalist and Grant Fisher slayer Berihu Aregawi (he’s finished one spot ahead of Fisher in the 10,000 at each of the last two Olympics) leads the way, and though he has not raced in over two months, he is the clear favorite.
2021 Olympic champion Selemon Barega (running his first track race since making his marathon debut in February), Hagos Gebrhiwet, and 18-year-old Biniam Mehary, who ran 26:37 to just miss out on a spot on the Ethiopian 10,000 team last year, are the other big names. Yomif Kejelcha, 6th at last year’s Olympics, is not running.
Conner Mantz is the sole American entrant, because of course he is. Mantz may be America’s best marathoner, but he loves racing on any surface. Why not hop in a fast 10,000 at Pre?
“We had a big gap in his calendar, and I think, more than anything, the desire to do it,” Mantz’s coach Ed Eyestone told LetsRun. “Nike thought it would be cool to have him in there, and I think he takes pride in the fact that he’s been able to mix it up very well with international fields.”
Eyestone said he believes Mantz, whose pb is 27:25, is in shape to run in the 27:00s. Mantz is always in pretty good shape, but the big focus for the rest of the year is on October’s Chicago Marathon, where Mantz has announced his intention to attack Khalid Khannouchi‘s 2:05:38 American record.
“He’d love to go under 27:00,” Eyestone said. “I don’t know that we’ve been doing the work that’s necessarily going to put him in that position.”
Athing Mu-Nikolayev runs her first 800 in a year
Outside of the women’s 5,000 and men’s 10,000, which are actual trials races, no event at Pre will have bigger World Championship ramifications than the women’s 800, where Athing Mu-Nikolayev will run her first 800 in a year.
After tearing her hamstring last spring, Mu-Nikolayev (she got married over the winter) raced just two 800m finals in 2024: the Olympic Trials final, where she fell; and the Holloway Pro Classic in Gainesville, where she looked well off her best and finished 5th in 2:00.29.
Mu-Nikolayev skipped indoors, and her three outdoor races (she strategically DNF’d one) have all been over-distance efforts, most recently a 4:10 1500 on May 24. We really have no idea what kind of 800m shape she is in right now.
That is what makes Saturday’s race so intriguing. Mu-Nikolayev’s rival Keely Hodgkinson is injured and has not raced since winning Olympic gold. But most of the other top 800 contenders will be at Pre, including reigning world champ Mary Moraa, Olympic silver medalist Tsige Duguma, and World Indoor champ Prudence Sekgodiso.
Bobby Kersee likened Mu-Nikolayev’s low-key start to the 2025 season to a baseball pitcher doing a few rehab stints in the minors. But given the qualty Mu-Nikolayev faced in those races versus this one, it’s more like a pitcher going from a high school game to an MLB playoff game.
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How will Mu-Nikolayev respond? At her peak, she would be expected to win handily. Duguma (1:56.64) and Sekgodiso (1:57.16) are the two fastest women in the world right now, yet Duguma has barely come within two seconds of Mu-Nikolayev’s 1:54.97 pb. Maybe we see that version of Athing Mu-Nikolayev, who is still just 23, on Saturday.
But what if we don’t? Mu-Nikolayev was so good early in her career that she did not have to worry much about tactics. How will she adapt if she is “only” a 1:56-57 woman now who can’t dictate races the way she used to?
There are a lot of questions in this one. We’ll finally get some answers on Saturday.
For more on Mu-Nikolayev, Scott Reid has written a nice profile in the Orange County Register. Read/discuss it here: MB Athing Mu opens up about her love of running, marriage and overcoming 2024 disappointment
Where will Athing Mu-Nikolayev finish in the 800 at Pre?
Olympic podium rematches & possible world record attempts in women’s 1500 and steeple
The women’s 1500 and steeple at Pre both feature the top four from last year’s Olympics. Both world records could conceivably fall on Saturday. These are races that could easily headline a different Diamond League, and yet they may not even crack the top five most exciting events at Pre.
But that doesn’t mean they’re not exciting. Faith Kipyegon headlines the women’s 1500 alongside fellow Olympic medalists Jessica Hull and Georgia Hunter Bell and fourth placer Diribe Welteji, and meet organizers are clearly expecting something special as they just announced the women’s 1500 will be the final event of the meet a spot usually reserved for the Bowerman Mile.
Kipyegon just ran 4:06.91, the fastest mile ever, at Breaking4, passing 1500 in around 3:48.5 — faster than her 3:49.04 world record from last year. Kipyegon had a ton of male pacers in that race, so the times did not count for record purposes, but afterwards she said the splits gave her hope to run under 3:49 in a DL race. That certainly appears to be the aim on Saturday.
Behind Kipyegon, the 1500 will serve as a preview of next month’s US championships. Between Nikki Hiltz, Emily Mackay, Sinclaire Johnson, Shelby Houlihan, and Heather MacLean, pretty much all the main American contenders are in this one.
The steeple is a similar story. Olympic gold and silver medalists Winfred Yavi and Peruth Chemutai are both running, but the woman to beat this year has been 20-year-old bronze medalist Faith Cherotich, who just ran a world-leading 8:53.37 to win at the Paris Diamond League. Yavi missed the world record by .07 in Rome last year, and Hayward Field has hosted more sub-9:00s (15) than any other track. Don’t be surprised if we see something very fast in this one.
As in the 1500, the top Americans are all running here as well: Val Constien, Courtney Wayment, Krissy Gear, Lexy Halladay-Lowry, Gabbi Jennings, and Olivia Markezich are all entered.
Will Faith Kipyegon break her 3:49.04 WR in the 1500 at Pre?
In each of the past two years, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has come agonizingly close to breaking the American 400m record.
The record is 48.70, set by Sanya Richards-Ross back in 2006. SML ran 48.74 at USAs in 2023, then 48.75 at a windy NYC Grand Prix last year. She hasn’t run crazy fast this year at Grand Slam Track — 50.32 and 49.69 as part of her 400/400H doubles — but the fact that Prefontaine organizers added a 400 specifically for McLaughlin-Levrone suggests she is ready to run fast.
Of course, we were meant to see SML race the 400 against Olympic gold and silver medalists Marileidy Paulino and Salwa Eid Naser in Los Angeles last weekend, but that fell apart when Grand Slam Track cancelled the meet. Neither of them will be in Eugene, with Paulino lining up in the 400 in Monaco next week instead (the 400 is not an official DL event at Pre).
There are still some quality athletes in this race — Rhasidat Adeleke, Amber Anning, and Alexis Holmes finished 4th through 6th at the Olympics, and Bella Whittaker just won a couple of Diamond Leagues in Europe. But the key battle could end up being McLaughlin-Levrone against the ghost of Sanya Richards-Ross.
Tebogo v. Bednarek in the 200, Hall v. Hudson-Smith in the 400, Benjamin v. dos Santos in 400H
It’s crazy that we’re almost 2,000 words into this preview and haven’t mentioned the Olympic champ Letsile Tebogo taking on Olympic silver medalist Kenny Bednarek in the 200. Bednarek, who went undefeated in Grand Slam Track, has been in much better form than Tebogo, who has battled injury this spring and hasn’t raced since May. If he’s back on track, this could be a great matchup.
We also have an Olympic rematch in the men’s 400 between gold medalist Quincy Hall and silver medalist Matt Hudson-Smith — the first time those two have tangoed since Paris. And while there’s no Karsten Warholm in the men’s 400 hurdles, we will get Rai Benjamin against Alison dos Santos, both of whom dipped under 47 seconds their last time out in Stockholm.
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