Fans win when the Regional meets the Road.

Byline: Ron Bellamy The Register-Guard

Only in Eugene. Only in Eugene would the NCAA West Regional track and field meet on Friday and Saturday at Hayward Field be a big deal.

Only in Eugene would you find, the very next day, an elite postcollegiate meet, the Road to Eugene '08, on Sunday.

"Hopefully, we don't track them out," said Vin Lananna, Oregon's director of track and field.

That the Road to Eugene meet, surprisingly successful on a warm weekday evening last August, got appended to this weekend was a matter of making the best out of a difficult situation.

Move it later, and it gets too close to the Pre Classic on June 10. Which is when the window of opportunity closes, because Hayward Field closes thereafter, for a summer of renovation work in preparation for the Olympic Trials next year.

Interestingly enough, and weather permitting, this figures to be a compelling weekend.

The regionals, in themselves, are a flawed concept. This meet doesn't have the drama of the Pac-10 championships, nor the prestige of the NCAA championships. It is a meet of qualifying heats, in which fifth place is as good as first, to advance athletes to the NCAA meet in Sacramento next month.

The regional meet tends to be a Death Watch, to see which athletes undo solid seasons of work in one bad event. The lyrics of the theme song ought to be, "So you've had a bad day."

But the meet worked here two years ago, drawing 8,162 over two days, because of this community's support for the sport, and because there were Ducks aplenty to cheer, and there will be plenty of those on Friday, when competition starts at 1 p.m., and Saturday, when events begin at 11 a.m.

The Road to Eugene '08 meet, which will fit 15 events into a 90-minute slot beginning at 2 p.m. Sunday, drew almost 6,000 last summer, and you could argue that the fans cared more about the meet than America's athletes did.

Turnout by bigger-name competitors wasn't great, with the reasons being that the meet got on the schedule too late, or that athletes already were committed to events in Europe, or that they needed a break late in the long season.

This year, while the scheduling isn't ideal for Eugene fans, stuck between the NCAA regionals and Memorial Day, it's certainly better for the athletes. The meet fits neatly between major meets in Carson, Calif., and New York.

And so the fields are much better this year. Both 800-meter races figure to be wonderful. Other star attractions include 400-meter runner Sanya Richards, last year's Track & Field News female athlete of the year, and pole vaulter Stacy Dragila, who has won that award previously.

The Road to Eugene meet - with gate receipts going to the Professional Athletics Association, geared to provide benefits for track-and-field athletes - fulfills a commitment made by the local organizing committee in winning the bid for next year's Olympic Trials.

Its purpose: To give U.S. athletes a chance to compete in their home country. If that builds local awareness for the 2008 Trials, so much the better.

To that end, the Road to Eugene meet is making extra efforts to get fans to Hayward Field and to entertain them there. Half-price tickets are available for those who show a ticket stub from the OSAA state track meet last weekend, or from the NCAA regional meet; UO students and faculty members will be admitted free.

During the meet, athletes will be interviewed before races as well as afterward, and fans will be brought to the infield and designated to cheer on specific throwers, for example. It's part of creating what will be an underlying theme for the Olympic Trials - an experience for the athletes that is special.

Whether the Road to Eugene meet returns next year, Lananna said, depends on how this year's version goes, and scheduling will be tight again, but he can certainly envision athletes wanting a lower-key meet here before the Trials, and there just might be this window in May and, well, only in Eugene.