August meet focuses on being different.

Byline: Ron Bellamy The Register-Guard

ROAD TO EUGENE '08

INDIANAPOLIS - Former Olympic gold medalists and world champions are among the athletes who have committed to compete in the innovative track and field meet - titled the Road to Eugene '08 - scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 8, at Hayward Field.

"This is going to be different," Oregon director of track and field Vin Lananna said Sunday, discussing the first wave of entrants in the new Eugene meet at the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Carroll Stadium.

"It's not going to be Prefontaine. It's not going to be the conference championships in the Pac-10. Every athlete loves to compete in Eugene. There can't be a more ideal time to be in Eugene than the beginning of August. We've got all the ingredients to make this a great event."

Some of the bigger names already committed for the men's events include high hurdlers Allen Johnson and Terrance Trammell, 400-meter hurdler Bershawn Jackson, shot putter Christian Cantwell and discus thrower Ian Waltz, and a field of elite pole vaulters that will include Russ Buller, who won here Saturday, and Oregon's Tommy Skipper.

In women's events, headliners who have said they plan to compete will include Sanya Richards, who has won two straight national championships at 400 meters; Rachelle Boone-Smith, who won the 200 here Sunday; Joanna Hayes, the recent Olympic gold medalist in the 100-meter hurdles; Anjanette Kirkland, the former world champion in the 100 hurdles; and long jumpers Tianna Madison, who won the long jump in the World Championships last year, two-time national champion Grace Upshaw and Rose Richmond, who won here Saturday.

Additional names, expected to include prominent athletes, will be announced as athletes and their agents confer after the USA championships, Lananna said.

The two-hour meet will have 15 events and is scheduled to start about 6:30 p.m., Lananna said. Nationally televised, the event will benefit the newly formed Professional Athletics Association, a union for elite U.S. athletes that is seeking to provide retirement benefits and other support.

Tickets for the August meet, priced at $15 for reserved seats and $10 general admission, go on sale on Monday, July 3, through the UO Athletic Department ticket office.

Although athletes' plans may change because of injury or other issues, there aren't any other meets for American athletes in that period other than a USA vs. China exhibition meet in Hershey, Pa., the previous Saturday.

Lananna said the Eugene meet was scheduled so that athletes could compete in both meets, and he expects some to do that.

Some of the premier events are shaping up to be the 110-meter hurdles, the shot put, the pole vault (Buller, Skipper, Toby Stevenson, Brad Walker, Nick Hysong and former Olympic champion Tim Mack), the 1,500 meters (including Gabe Jennings, who finished second here Sunday) and a unique event, the 300 meters.

Top women's events, Lananna said, will include the 200 (Richards, Boone-Smith), long jump, 800 and hurdles. There will be at least one distance race - steeplechase, 5,000 or 10,000 - each for men and women.

In addition to Skipper, the fields will include current and recently graduated Oregon athletes, as well as members of the U.S. team that will compete in the World Junior Championships Aug. 15-20 in Beijing, China.

That will include Rebekah Noble, the UO freshman, who will likely run against the post-collegiates at 800 meters.

"She's going to be in the 800, and she's going to run fast," Lananna said.

The meet is a cooperative effort between the Local Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Trials - which committed to stage such a meet in presenting its successful bid and is providing the $200,000 prize money - USA Track & Field, which is providing travel expenses for the athletes; and the USATF Athletes Advisory Committee, contributing toward lodging.

In all, Lananna figures a total investment of $450,000 by the various partners, and though word of the meet has spread slowly among athletes, he expects strong fields and an entertaining event.

"The difficulty is that this is new, and no one is quite sure how it's going to play out, and it's going to take a little leap of faith that we're going to get all the details worked out," Lananna said. "I have no doubt that it will be a great event."

Craig Masback, chief executive officer of USATF, noted the pool of prize money and said, "There are very few athletes who can't take that prize money seriously."

Two other elements will make the meet attractive to athletes, Masback said. First of all, athletes will have an investment in the meet because the gate receipts will benefit the newly formed PAA.

Harkening back to the battles that Oregon's Bill Bowerman and Steve Prefontaine fought with the old governing body, the Amateur Athletics Union, in the 1970s, and to the union that athletes, including Masback, attempted to form during the 1980 Olympic Trials in Eugene, Masback said it's fitting that the first meet to benefit the athletes' association will be held at Hayward Field.

"To me this is the fulfillment of so many wishes and dreams," he said. "There's important symbolism that this is taking place in Eugene, where a lot of that got going in the early 1970s."

Second, Masback said, the meet will feature innovations designed to improve the experience for both athletes and spectators.

"It's about letting the fans have a different experience," Masback said. "This is a meet by and for athletes, and what the athletes want to do is have the experience be different."

Masback said the meet will be "a laboratory for trying out some things" that he hopes become commonplace.

For example, Lananna said, athletes may go into the stands to converse with spectators after events, there will be live music either before or after the meet, and other different approaches - such as the odd-distance 300 meters - will be tried.

Several other events will be scheduled around the meet in Eugene.

On the night before the meet, the Local Organizing Committee will launch the Road to Eugene '08 by introducing the brand and logo for the Trials, launching the Web site, announcing Trials ticket prices and unveiling preliminary plans for the refurbishing of Hayward Field.

The U.S. team that will competing in the World Junior Championships will hold a training camp in Eugene Aug. 5 to Aug. 9, and Lananna said the community will be invited to a barbecue for the team at Hayward Field on Sunday, Aug. 6.

That team includes Noble and future Oregon runner A.J. Acosta of Oceanside, Calif.