Pre meet flexes its big-name muscle.

Byline: Bob Rodman The Register-Guard

No Olympics. No World Championships. No sweat.

The Prefontaine Classic track and field meet, now the only IAAF Grand Prix event on the North American continent, is ready to rattle Hayward Field's historic cage once again.

Sunday's 32nd rendition of the Pre meet, named for the late University of Oregon track star Steve Prefontaine, is expected to include some 50 Olympic and World Championship gold medalists - the most ever assembled for one meet in the United States.

Those and more of the planet's most talented athletes will chase nearly $250,000 in prize money as well as the coveted Grand Prix circuit points.

"We're going to have more Olympic medalists at this one meet than were at the Los Angeles (1984) and Atlanta (1996) games combined," said Tom Jordan, director of the Pre meet since 1984.

The latest showstoppers scheduled for the famed Hayward track are Justin Gatlin, the Nike-sponsored, 24-year-old former Tennessee sprinter, and Jamaican sprint star Asafa Powell.

Powell held the 100-meter world record of 9.77 seconds until it appeared Gatlin broke the mark with a 9.76 in a Grand Prix race earlier this month at Doha, Qatar.

Less than a week later, however, IAAF officials reversed the call, announcing that a timing error was detected and Gatlin's time had been adjusted to 9.77 seconds - tying Powell, who set the world record in June 2005 at Athens, Greece.

Gatlin was scheduled to run the 100 at the Pre meet, but Powell was entered in the 200. Interest in the two athletes meeting in the same race rose rapidly with the stir over the world record, but they are not scheduled to meet again until a Grand Prix meet at Gateshead, England, on June 11.

The flap spurred Pre Classic officials to add a second section to the 100, providing a race for Gatlin, who will be in one section, and Powell, who will be in the other. Finish times will be ranked and prize money distributed accordingly.

Gatlin expressed his disappointment about the time change but said "I'm motivated to run a faster time ... I'm trying to go 9.74 or 9.73."

The Gatlin-Powell attraction will not be the only attention-getter for the Pre meet.

The Bowerman Mile, named for the late and legendary Oregon track and field coach Bill Bowerman, has had 181 sub-4-minute finishes at the Pre Classic by 109 athletes. The high was 13 in 1995. Twelve runners ran under 4 minutes in each of the 1994, 2001 and 2003 meets.

The field for Sunday's race includes Bernard Lagat, who owns the American record for the 1,500 meters (3:29.30). Four of the event's headliners - Lagat, Alan Webb, Rachid Ramzi of Bahrain and Alex Kipchirchir of Kenya - ran sub-3:50 miles or the metric equivalent in 2005.

And all will be chasing the Pre meet and Hayward Field standard of 3:49.42 set by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco in 2001.

El Guerrouj, the world record-holder for the mile (3:43.13) and 1,500 (3:26.00), will attend the Pre meet but not compete. He is expected to announce his retirement from the sport soon.

"That El Guerrouj is choosing to begin his farewell tour in Eugene at the Prefontaine Classic is a reflection of the stature the meet has attained worldwide," Jordan said.

Another expected guest of the Pre Classic is the Ukraine's Sergey Bubka, retired from competition but still holder of the world pole vault record (20-1 3/4 ) and Pre meet mark of 19-6 1/4 , which he set in 1994.

Among those spending the day at work will be Mozambique-born Olympian and world champion, and Eugene-Springfield favorite, Maria Mutola, the mega-medalist 800 runner who will be chasing an unprecedented 14th consecutive Pre meet victory.

Sanya Richards, the second-fastest female 400 runner in American history (48.92) and an Olympic and world championship gold medalist, will face Mexico's Ana Guevara, who set the Pre and Hayward records of 49.34 in 2003.

Adam Nelson returns ranked No. 1 in the shot put and was part of the 2002 Pre Classic when three athletes - Kevin Toth, Nelson and John Godina - had marks of more than 71 feet.

The men's discus field is led by Lithuania's Virjilijus Alekna, an Olympic and world champion gold medalist.

Six of the world's top 10 110-meter hurdlers, including Olympic gold medalists Allen Johnson and China's Liu Xiang, have been booked for Pre.

Johnson has twice equaled the American record of 12.92. Xiang owns the Pre and Hayward records of 13.06, which he set in 2005, and he equaled the world record of 12.91 in 2004.

Bershawn Jackson, the 2005 world champion in the 400 hurdles and ranked No. 1 in the world, returns to defend the title and Pre Classic record he secured last year with his 47.91 run.

The most significant scratch of the meet is the withdrawal of 400 hurdler Felix Sanchez, an Olympic gold medalist who sustained a calf muscle injury during a meet in the Dominican Republic earlier this month.

Twenty events are scheduled, four more than the 2005 meet.

"The added events are part of the deal we made in the bid to get the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials to Eugene," Jordan said. "We promised more competitive opportunities for U.S. athletes on U.S. soil."

Making its inaugural appearance in the meet is the women's hammer throw.

American record-holder Erin Gilreath (242-4) leads a field that includes Canadian record-holder Jennifer Joyce and Croatian record-holder Ivana Brkljacic.

PRE CLASSIC FACTS

What you need to know for Sunday's event at Hayward Field

Schedule of events: 1:34 p.m. - Women's hammer. 1:57 p.m. Men's discus. 2:01 p.m. - Men's 400-meter hurdles. 2:06 p.m. - 2:10 p.m. - Men's 100 meters. 2:14 p.m. - Men's triple jump. 2:18 p.m. - Women's 800 meters. 2:28 p.m. - Women's 100-meter hurdles. 2:36 p.m. - Men's 110-meter hurdles. 2:40 p.m. - Women's high jump. 2:46 p.m. - Women's 100 meters. 2:49 p.m. - Men's pole vault. 2:54 p.m. - Women's 1,500 meters. 3:01 p.m. - Men's shot put. 3:06 p.m. - Women's 400 meters. 3:10 p.m. - Men's long jump. 3:14 p.m. - Men's 400 meters. 3:22 p.m. - Men's two-mile. 3:38 p.m. - Men's 200 meters. 3:46 p.m. - Men's Bowerman Mile.

Tickets: Reserved seats are $24.50 each. General admission $18.50 each for adults, $14.50 for seniors and students (11-17), and $2.50 for children (2-10).

Ticket sales: At the University of Oregon's Casanova Center ticket office during regular business hours or by calling 541-346-4461 or 1-800-932-3668, or online at www.goducks.com.