NIKE Prefontaine Classic preview (part 2): Men's 400 Hurdles...
This is the second of a series of mini-preview posts on Saturday's Nike Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field.
The Prefontaine Classic, named after the late University of Oregon runner Steve Prefontaine, celebrates its fiftieth anniversary as the nation's premier one-day invitational meet.
The Prefontaine Classic is the only North American stop on the 15-event Wanda Diamond League tour, which began in April in China, and ends in Zürich.
We preview those events which will have athletes with ties to the state of Washington competing. Next up--the men's 400 hurdles.
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Once NBC and Peacock go on the air at 1 pm Pacific time, the first scheduled race television viewers will see of the Nike Prefontaine Classic from Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon for stop number nine of the Wanda Diamond League tour is the mens 400 meter hurdles.
While his season opening time was comparable to how he's opened in the past two seasons, Washington State alum CJ Allen (Paul Merca photo) has only broken 49 seconds once this season in four races over the 400 hurdles.
Allen opened 2025 with a fifth place finish in the opening meet of the Grand Slam Track tour in Kingston, Jamaica, where he ran his season best of 48.71.
Three weeks later, he ran a personal best in an event he hasn't run in since his days at North Mason High School, the 300 hurdles, where he ran 34.96 at the Xiamen Diamond League meet in the first major meet of the season since the event became an official world record race.
A week later, Allen finished sixth in 49.24 at the Shanghai/Kequiao Diamond League stop, then ran 49.90 on May 16th at the Doha Diamond League race for a fifth place finish.
In his last race, Allen finished fifth in a time of 49.61 at the Philadelphia Grand Slam Track contest on May 31st at Franklin Field.
In fairness, because of the opportunity to race at the Grand Slam meet in Kingston and the fact that the US nationals are later than normal because of the fact that the world championships are being held in September, he, along with many others, haven't had to peak as early as in the last two seasons.
Allen will face a field at Pre that includes Olympic champion Rai Benjamin and former world champions Alison dos Santos of Brazil and Abderrahman Samba of Qatar. He'll also face fellow US Olympian Trevor Bassitt and Nathaniel Ezekiel of Nigeria, who won the NCAA 400 hurdles title last month for Baylor.
Entering this weekend's meet, Allen currently sits in a five way tie for eighth place with 8 points (tiebreakers at the end of the season are based on the best legal mark). In the Diamond League standings so far this season, Benjamin is second with 23 points, and dos Santos is fifth with 13 points, while Bassitt is tied with Allen.
The eight with the most points after the Brussels meet will qualify for the finals in Zürich.
After Eugene, the final opportunity in a Diamond League meet to contest the 400 hurdles is in Silesia, Poland on August 16th, as Monaco, London, Lausanne and Brussels won't host it as a scoring event.
USATF.tv will air the events not covered in the television window, starting at 10 am Pacific with the men's hammer throw.
NOTE: The Nike Prefontaine Classic, World Athletics, and the Wanda Diamond League contributed to this report.
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