Eugene welcomes the world's best to the Pre Classic Sunday...

If it's late May or early June, it must be time for the annual foray to Eugene, Oregon for the NIKE Prefontaine Classic on Sunday at Hayward Field.

As always, meet director Tom Jordan, with the help of folks like Nike global athletics head John Capriotti, has put together a star-studded field that includes the likes of Liu Xiang in the 110 hurdles, Bernard Lagat in the two-mile, Alan Webb and Daniel K. Komen in the mile, Kenenisa Bekele in the 10000, Meseret Defar in the 5000...the list goes on and on--instead of me yapping about it, here's the link to who's showing up Sunday.

Besides Lagat, notable athletes with Washington ties competing in the elite section of the Pre include pole vaulter Brad Walker, and discus thrower Aretha Thurmond.

And if that were not enough, the Oregon Track Club will stage a mini-meet between the end of the women's 5000 and the start of the NBC television window, concentating primarily on middle distance races from 10:25 to 11:25 am.

Among those competing are Ryan Brown, and former SPU runner Eddie Strickler in the men's 800; Courtney Jaworski & Jordan McNamara in the men's 1500; former Spokane prep standout and NCAA champ Rebekah Noble in the women's 800; and, University of Washington assistant coach Kelly Strong in the women's 1500.

The start list for the Prefontaine/Oregon TC mini-meet, designed to give athletes an opportunity to post qualifying times for the Olympic Trials, is here. To see the time schedule, click here.

Here's the IAAF preview of the meet...and here's the USA Track & Field meet preview.

PS--Above, you'll see the annual poster for the meet, which they're selling for $15.