Stanford, California – World-leader, Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson is among the starters in what is an impressive Prefontaine Classic women’s 200 meters.
In fact, the organizers have confirmed that all three Olympic medalists from Rio will face the starter’s gun at the 45th Pre Classic – an IAAF Diamond League meets that will be held on June 30 at Stanford’s Cobb Track and Angell Field.
The field boasts IAAF Diamond League winners in three events along with the reigning world champions in the 100 and 200 meters, last year’s fastest in both sprints, and a three-time Pre Classic winner.
http://gty.im/1146736557Three have been world ranked No. 1 and every sprinter has ranked no lower than No. 5.
Dina Asher-Smith, 23, was the world’s fastest sprinter last year, setting British records in both the 100 (10.85) and 200 (21.89) meters en route to her country’s first sweep of sprint golds by a woman or man at the European Championships in Berlin.
The 2018 season was Asher-Smith’s best in other measures. She made the Track & Field News 100-meter world rankings for the first time, and her No. 4 there combined with a No. 2 in the 200 rates as Great Britain’s best showing by a woman since 1977, when Sonia Lannaman was No. 2 in both sprints.
Asher-Smith has reached every World/Olympic finals in the 200 since 2015, a year after winning World Junior (U20) 100 gold in Eugene. This year Asher-Smith already has two Diamond League victories in the 200, winning at Doha and Stockholm.
http://gty.im/1155754740Dafne Schippers, who will turn 27 on June 15, is the two-time defending World Championships gold medalist in the 200. The Dutch speedster owns the European record at 21.63, the world’s fastest low-altitude mark since Florence Griffith Joyner’s 21.34 world record at the 1988 Olympics.
Schippers has been world ranked by T&FN in both sprints since 2014, and in the 200 she has been in the top 3 all five years. She won the Diamond League title in 2016, when she was silver medalist at Rio, and was the Diamond League runner-up last year.
Her first major medal came in the heptathlon, where she owns a PR of 6545 points and claimed bronze in the 2013 Moscow Worlds.
http://gty.im/1148461253Jamaican Elaine Thompson, who will turn 27 on June 28, is the only woman since Griffith Joyner in 1988 to win Olympic gold in the 100 and 200 meters in the same year, claiming both in Rio. She is one of Jamaica’s best in a long line of great sprinters.
Thompson, who recently won the sprint double at the Jamaica trials, owns the world-leading time of 22.00 seconds for the 200m.
She co-owns the national record in the 100 at 10.70 with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and her 21.66 is second only to Merlene Ottey’s 21.64 in the 200.
After two-straight Diamond League titles in the 100, Thompson missed most of last summer yet still ranked No. 3 in the world by T&FN in the 100. She has shown impressive form this year, winning the Rome Diamond League 100 in 10.89.
Tori Bowie, 28, won the London Worlds 100 after Olympic silver at Rio and has ranked No. 2 in the world three times in the 100 by T&FN. In the 200 she earned bronze in 2016, leaving Rio with two individual medals, the only American woman with any in the sprints. She anchored the U.S. 4×100 to gold from lane 1 in the world’s second-fastest time ever.
Her last race on the track ended in pain at the Pre Classic a year ago, but she appears to be recovering well – even long jumping (22-3/6.78) in April for the first time since the 2014 Pre Classic (she won her only NCAA titles in the long jump, sweeping the 2011 indoor/outdoor while at Southern Mississippi).
Bowie has a fascinating career in the Pre Classic 200, going 3 for 3 in some of the meet’s best races. In 2014 she won from lane 1 in a PR 22.18, then again in 2016 in a better lane with another PR 21.99. In 2017 she took down the meet’s best-ever field in a PR and meet-record 21.77.
Jenna Prandini, 26, won her second U.S. 200 title last year and finished the season with her first double T&FN world rankings, No. 5 in the 200 and No. 6 in the 100. In 2016, she edged Allyson Felix in a frantic finish for the final spot on the U.S. Olympic 200 team. The native of Clovis, Calif., won three NCAA titles at Oregon (one in the 100 and two in the long jump).
http://gty.im/1029233536Salwa Eid Naser, 21, is the reigning Diamond League champion at 400 meters, where she owns a best of 49.08. She earned silver in the London Worlds – Bahrain’s best major finish since Maryam Yusuf Jamal, whose London Olympic 1500 bronze has since been elevated to gold.
Eid Naser has already won two Diamond League 400 races, winning in Shanghai and last week in Rome. She set Bahrain’s national record in the 200 last month in China at 22.56, her third PR of the year after not running the event since 2016.
| Women’s 200 Meters | Personal Best | |
| Dafne Schippers (Netherlands) | 21.63 | |
| Elaine Thompson (Jamaica) | 21.66 | |
| Tori Bowie (USA) | 21.77 | |
| Dina Asher-Smith (Great Britain) | 21.89 | |
| Blessing Okagbare (Nigeria) | 22.04 | |
| Deajah Stevens (USA) | 22.09 | |
| Jenna Prandini (USA) | 22.16 | |
| Salwa Eid Naser (Bahrain) | 22.56 |
Fans can follow the event lineups as all announced fields are posted at PreClassic.com. The direct link to current start/entry lists is HERE and will include updates to all announced fields.
