Looking Ahead, Athletes Take Test in Eugene

Alan Webb has come full circle. Maria Mutola has come home. Maurice Greene has come to pursue the world record he’s sure is “around the corner.”

The 30th annual Prefontaine Classic track meet, traditionally a remembrance of native son Steve Prefontaine, today will have a distinctly forward-looking perspective. With the U.S. Olympic trials 20 days away and the Athens Olympics 55 days distant, it will provide a test of preparation and passion, of psychological and physical states.

It’s an especially meaningful day for Webb, who will run the mile. He broke Jim Ryun’s high-school mile record here three years ago with a time of 3 minutes 53.43 seconds but leveled off soon after. Since recovering from an emergency appendectomy last year, he has set personal records in each of the four 1,500-meter races he has run this season, positioning himself as a potential Olympic medalist.

“Whenever you run well, it puts pressure on you to run even better,” said Webb, who left the University of Michigan after his freshman year and went home to Reston, Va. “It just took some time for me to figure things out and get into a good rhythm, where I’m getting better every race, and I think I’m in that rhythm right now.”

He made some mechanical and mental adjustments and underwent others as part of maturation. He also learned to ignore the frenzy generated by his emergence as a world-class middle-distance runner, a rare species in the U.S.

“Running is my life. There’s nothing else. What was I going to do? I wasn’t going to quit. No way. I had to keep running, and I kind of knew that eventually things would come around.”

With a forecast of light wind and temperatures in the low 70s, conditions could be favorable for a sub-3:51 performance, but Webb made no promises.

“I really don’t like to put times on myself,” he said. “My main priority is, I’m going to run to win the race. There’s great runners in the field, and to do that, I’ll have to run fast. Time is definitely secondary.”

Mutola is chasing her Prefontaine 800-meter meet record of 1:57.57, which seems attainable, considering the world-leading time of 1:57.72 she ran last week in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Winner of the 800 gold medal at Sydney and a six-time world indoor 800 champion, she left her native Mozambique as a high school junior and lived in Eugene for nearly a dozen years until allergies led her to move to Johannesburg, South Africa.

Her coach, Margo Jennings, a schoolteacher, stayed behind. They keep in touch by fax and phone.

“It’s tough, but it works for us,” Mutola said. “The most important thing is honesty. I tell her what I did, and if I don’t feel good, she can adjust my program.”

Said Jennings: “She’s in excellent shape, the best ever. She just keeps getting stronger, and yes, the hunger is still there.”

Mutola, who was undefeated last year and has won 26 consecutive finals, is an 11-time Prefontaine champion. Her prime competition figures to be Nicole Teter of Redwood City, Calif., who ran a 1:58.83 this season, and Jen Toomey of Salem, Mass., who ran 1:59.64 indoors.

Greene has run wind-aided times of 9.78 and 9.86 and legal times of 10.02 and 10.04 this season. He will renew his rivalry with Tim Montgomery, who broke his world record in 2002 with a 9.78.

Montgomery, notified by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency of potential drug violations, and girlfriend Marion Jones, under investigation by USADA, skipped Friday’s news conference. Jones, entered in the 100 and long jump, said she would speak with reporters after her events.

“Who’s in it?” asked Greene, the Sydney 100-meter gold medalist. “I don’t know who I’m running against. It doesn’t matter to me. I’m going to run the same type of race.”

While the steroid scandal casts suspicion over the sport, Greene feels compelled to create good news.

“That’s why I continue to go out there and do what I have to do to try to take away the dark cloud over track and field,” he said.

Jones’ opponents in the 100 include Chryste Gaines, who, like Montgomery, was notified by USADA of potential drug violations. Also entered are two-time Olympic 100 champion Gail Devers, Torri Edwards and Latasha Colander.

Also, shotputter Christian Cantwell plans to compete after winning an exhibition at the Titan Games in Atlanta with a throw of 73 feet. He has three throws of 73 feet or longer this month, a first for an American.

*

Prefontaine Classic

* Where -- Hayward Field, Eugene, Ore.

* When -- Today.

* TV -- ESPN2 6:30-8:30 p.m. (delayed); rebroadcast ESPN July 31 1-2:30 a.m.

* Of Note -- This is the 30th Prefontaine Classic, honoring the legendary Oregon distance runner who died in 1975. This edition has drawn especially impressive fields in just about every event, because many U.S. athletes are using it as a tuneup for next month’s Olympic trials.

The men’s 100 will match Sydney gold medalist Maurice Greene against world-record holder Tim Montgomery. Allen Johnson, gold medalist in the 110-meter hurdles at Atlanta and the reigning world champion, will compete in his specialty; USC alumnus Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic, the world champion in the 400-meter hurdles, will face Olympic champion Angelo Taylor. A resurgent Alan Webb is entered in the mile. The women’s 100-meter hurdles field includes 2001 world champion Anjanette Kirkland and 2003 champion Perdita Felicien of Canada.