Elaine Thompson-Herah, Faith Kipyegon and Jakob Ingebrigtsen also impress at Eugene meeting while Matt Hudson-Smith breaks long-standing UK 400m record

With just seven weeks to go until the World Championships start in Eugene, Oregon, the competitors at the Prefontaine Classic on Saturday (May 28) had an opportunity to lay down a marker ahead of the biggest event of 2022.

Keely Hodgkinson was among them as she won the women’s 800m in style. Her head-to-head with Olympic champion Athing Mu did not happen after the American pulled out on the eve of the meeting due to suffering the after-effects of Covid. But it would have been fascinating to see how the Briton would have fared against Mu as, in her absence, the Briton took victory in 1:57.72.

After the pacemaker led the runners through the bell in 58.3, Hodgkinson cruised into the lead with 150m to go and drew away from her rivals to beat US duo Ajee’ Wilson and Raevyn Rogers.

Fellow Brit and Olympic finalist Jemma Reekie was just behind Hodgkinson with 200m to go but fell back to eighth in 2:00.53.

Ingebrigtsen shows who is No.1

Jakob Ingebrigtsen also sent an ominous message to his rivals when he cruised away on the final lap to win the Bowerman Mile in 3:49.76.

After the pacemaker passed 800m in 1:52, the Norwegian took control on the third lap and surged with 400m to go to create daylight and from then on there was little question he was going to lose as a scrap for second place ensued.

That went to Olli Hoare of Australia as he ran 3:50.65 closely followed by world champion Timothy Cheruiyot and fellow Kenyan Abel Kipsang.

The Oregon duo of Cole Hocker and Cooper Teare were just behind. In seventh, Britain’s Jake Heyward ran a 3:51.99 PB.

UK 400m record falls

Iwan Thomas’ British record for 400m has stood the test of time for a quarter of a century but Matt Hudson-Smith finally took it down on Saturday in Eugene as he clocked 44.35 to take one hundredth of a second off Thomas’s long-standing mark.

Thomas set the record when beating Mark Richardson and Jamie Baulch to the British title in Birmingham in July 1997. When no individual 400m runner was picked for the British Olympic team last year, it looked like Thomas’s record might survive for a while yet.

But Hudson-Smith, the European champion from 2018, has bounced back to form this year and he ran strongly to finish third in Eugene behind Kirani James, the Grenada athlete running 44.02, and winner Michael Norman, the American running a Diamond League record of 43.60.

In addition, Hudson-Smith was a little fortunate not to be disqualified after he seemed to twitch forward out of his blocks when the runners were about to start. After an anxious wait, however, he was allowed by officials to race.

Hudson-Smith, 27, is based in the United States but as a member of Birchfield Harriers he will be a popular contender at the Commonwealth Games this summer on his home track in Birmingham. Given this form he will be a World Championships medal contender too.

A former English Schools 200m champion, Hudson-Smith has endured his fair share of setbacks over the years. In 2015 he suffered multiple stress fractures in his back, whereas when he was 16 he nearly lost his left leg due to a gangrenous ulcer. “My leg was rotting and I have a massive scar from it still,” he once told AW.

It was an overcast and showery day in Eugene but the sun began to come out a little as Hayward Field warmed up just in time for the women’s 100m.

It led to some fast times as Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica pulled ahead of her rivals in the second half of the race to clock 10.79 (0.7).

American Sha’Carri Richardson and Jamaican Shericka Jackson shared the same time of 10.92 with the runner-up decision going to Richardson.

Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Twanisha Terry of the United States also shared the same time of 10.98 with Asher-Smith getting the nod for fourth.

Later in the evening, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce took the women’s 200m comfortably in 22.42 (0.8).

The men’s 100m was no less exciting either as Trayvon Bromell ran 9.93 (-0.2) to beat fellow Americans Fred Kerley, Christian Coleman and Noah Lyles.

Faith Kipyegon out-kicked Gudaf Tsegay in the closing stages of a brutal women’s 1500m that saw the runners pass 400m in 60 seconds and 800m in 2:03 before the Kenyan finally drew away from her Ethiopian rival to clock 3:52.60 to Tsegay’s 3:54.21.

In third was Gabriela Debues-Stafford of Canada with 3:58.62 and then Sinclaire Johnson of the United States with a big PB of 3:58.85 as the top seven all broke four minutes. But Laura Muir, possibly struggling with jetlag, faded to 11th in 4:04.45.

Berihu Aregawi, the 2021 Diamond League champion, ran away from a strong field to win in style in 12:50.05 – a meeting record, world lead and PB by a remarkable 18 seconds.

After the pacemaker dropped out the 21-year-old went through 3000m alone in 7:43.6 and pulled further away to beat Samuel Tefera, the world indoor 1500m champion clocking 13:06.86, with Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega third in 13:07.30 and Mo Ahmed of Canada fourth in 13:07.85.

Big performances in the field

Khaddi Sagnia of Sweden secured the win in the women’s long jump with 6.95m (1.0) as Ese Brume (6.82m) and Tara Davis (6.73m) were second and third.

Ryan Crouser won the men’s shot impressively with a world lead of 23.02m as he beat fellow American Joe Kovacs by half a metre.

Best of the rest

Alison dos Santos has started the season in brilliant form and the Brazilian won the 400m hurdles here in a world lead of 47.23.

Jasmine Camacho-Quinn also begins the 2022 summer in fine form and the Puerto Rico athlete posted another victory in the women’s 100m hurdles with a fast 12.45 (-0.7) as Britain’s Cindy Sember was fourth in 12.69.

Two-day meeting started with a bang

On Friday night in Eugene, Karissa Schweizer and Joe Klecker won US 10,000m titles in dramatic races. Schweizer outkicked Alicia Monson to win in 30:49.56 while Klecker beat US record-holder Grant Fischer with 28:28.81 with Sean McGorty a close third.

Joe Klecker’s victory in the US men’s 10,000m in Eugene was a thriller. pic.twitter.com/LBfQEiNpdv

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) May 28, 2022

Three world record attempts fell flat but there were still fast times. Joshua Cheptegei won the men’s 5000m in 12:57.99 as Britain’s Sam Atkin was fifth in 13:15.31, whereas Ejgayehu Taye won the women’s 5000m in 14:12.98 as fellow Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey was second in 14:24.59.

Francine Niyonsaba, meanwhile, ran the second fastest women’s time ever for two miles with 8:59.08, missing Meseret Defar’s world best by half a second.

There was however a world record in the women’s T63 100m as Martina Caironi ran 14.02 as para-athletics events returned to the Pre Classic for the first time in more than 30 years.

Elsewhere Valarie Allman of the United States won the women’s discus with 68.35m, Mondo Duplantis took the pole vault with 5.91m and Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine won the high jump with 2.00m.