Eugene, Oregon - Four of the superstars of the sport of track & field Athletics, Kenenisa Bekele, Yelena Isinbayeva, Tyson Gay, and Sanya Richards, will compete in the 36th annual Prefontaine Classic on Saturday, 3 July 2010. These Fabulous Four are Ambassadors of the inaugural IAAF Diamond League circuit that kicks off in Doha, Qatar on 14 May and arrives in Eugene the first weekend in July.
Bekele and Isinbayeva, in particular, have dominated their events during the first decade of the new millennium, and each was recently named Athlete of the Decade by Track & Field News magazine.
• Isinbayeva, also 27, has won two Olympic and five World Championships golds (3 indoor/ two outdoor) for Russia, and has set 27 World records (15 outdoors; 12 Indoors; 17 overall) in the Pole Vault. The 2010 Prefontaine Classic will be Isinbayeva's first appearance outdoors in the United States as she continues her climb towards becoming history's first female 17-foot vaulter.
• Richards won World Championships gold in the 400m this past year in Berlin. The Pre Classic favourite, who just turned 25 last week, has run under 50-seconds an astonishing 41 times, more than any other one-lapper in history.
Click on the following link to read the full press release on the IAAF Diamond League website: http://www.diamondleague.com/en/News/News-Details/
2010 IAAF Diamond League Calendar
Doha (QAT) – Fri 14 May
Shanghai (CHN) – Sun 23 May
Oslo (NOR) – Fri 4 June
Rome (ITA) – Thu 10 June
New York (USA) – Sat 12 June
Eugene (USA) – Sat 3 July
Lausanne (SUI) – Thu 8 July
Gateshead (GBR) – Sat 10 July
Paris (FRA) – Fri 16 July
Monaco (MON) – Thu 22 July
Stockholm (SWE) – Fri 6 Aug
London (GBR) – Fri 13 and Sat 14 Aug
Zürich (SUI) – Thu 19 Aug
Brussels (BEL) – Fri 27 Aug
