110m hurdles winner Omar McLeod at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Eugene (© Kirby Lee)
Organisers of the Prefontaine Classic have announced a stellar 110m hurdles field for the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Stanford on 30 June.
Sergey Shubenkov became the event’s first repeat IAAF Diamond League winner last year. The 2015 world champion ran 12.92 last year, just .01 off the European record and one of his four sub-13 clockings in 2018.
Omar McLeod’s 2018 season was cut short through injury after winning his third-straight Pre Classic title last year. The Jamaican, who is the youngest man to win world and Olympic gold medals in the 110m hurdles, is now back in action and will be looking to win again at this meeting.
France’s European champion Pascal Martinot-Lagarde is a two-time Pre Classic winner. He also owns two world indoor 60m hurdles silver medals.
Hansle Parchment was the first Jamaican to break 13 seconds, clocking 12.94 in 2014. In between earning Olympic bronze in 2012 and world silver in 2015, he won the 2013 Pre Classic.
With a best of 13.05, Commonwealth champion Ronald Levy is the third-fastest Jamaican in history. He finished runner-up at the 2017 Pre Classic in his first year on the IAAF Diamond League circuit.
Three-time US outdoor champion Devon Allen has a best of 13.03, set when winning the 2016 US Trials. He went on to finish fifth at the Olympic Games later that year, while more recently he won his first US indoor title.
Xie Wenjun won his second Asian title last week with a PB and championship record of 13.21, the fastest time by a Chinese sprint hurdler since Liu Xiang won at the 2012 Pre Classic with a wind-aided 12.87.
One lane in the Pre Classic 110m hurdles field remains open, reserved for the competitor performing the best in the coming weeks.
Organisers for the IAAF
