Carson Lands 2005 U.S. Meet

The Home Depot Center in Carson will be the site of the 2005 USA Track & Field championships, USATF announced Wednesday.

The meet, to be staged at the same venue as the IAAF World Cup of Athletics in 2006, will serve as the qualifying meet for the U.S. team that will compete in the 2005 world championships in Helsinki, Finland.

The national track championships have not been run in the Los Angeles area since 1990.

UCLA played host to the national championships in 1974, ’76 and ’77 when the meet was known as the Amateur Athletic Union championships.

Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut was the site of the meet in 1979 and ’80 when it was known as the Athletics Congress championships.

The Coliseum was the site of the 1984 U.S. Olympic trials and the track competition for the Olympic Games that summer. But the national championships were last held in Southern California in 1990 at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

“We are proud to bring the USA Outdoor Track & Field championships back to Los Angeles and to the Home Depot Center,” USATF CEO Craig Masback said in a statement.

“Southern California has always been a hotbed for our sport, and the 2003 Home Depot Invitational was an enormous success. With the 2006 IAAF World Cup on the horizon, having the 2005 U.S. championships at the facility is a natural fit.”

The Home Depot Invitational, the inaugural event at the $150-million, 85-acre sports complex on the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills, played before a capacity crowd of 10,094 on June 1.

-- John Ortega