T&F | Ryan Crouser, Jennifer Shur Highlight Record Breaking Final Day of Pre Classic

The record breaking came in bunches today at the final day of the Prefontaine Classic held at Historic Hayward Field. Day two picked up right where day one left off, in record breaking fashion. Starting with the women’s pole vault where Jennifer Shur who set a meet record with a vault of 15-11 feet, a record that hadn’t been broken since 2002. That was not the only record breaking performance for the women. Caster Semenya of South Africa set the meet record, stadium record, and ran the fastest time on American soil with a time of 1:55.92 in the women’s 800 meter. The men side had an historic day as well. It started with Ronnie Baker in the men’s 100 meter dash. Baker set a meet record and a season best time of 9.78 in the 100 meter. Benjamin Kigen of Kenya ran a personal best and fastest time in the world this year in the men’s 3000 meter steeple chase with a time of 8:09.07. Noah Lyles followed with a performance in the men’s 200 meter where he set personal best and now world leading time of 19.69. Capping off the day of historic performances was Ryan Crouser. Crouser, an Portland, Oregon native, won the men’s shot put with a throw of 73-11 feet. That mark set a meet record, a personal season best, it put Crouser seventh best all time on the U.S. throwing list, it was also the best mark by an American this year and won him athlete of the meet. Many athletes paid homage to Historic Hayward Field as this was the last time a Prefontaine Classic will be held the historic venue before renovations begin this summer. Meet Director Tom Jordan said there will be a Prefontaine Classic next year that will take place June 28-29.Jordan says that the venue is unnamed but hopes to keep it in the region.

Meet Story (by Gabriel Ornelas)