At Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, on June 10th, this meet is the fourth of five stops in the 2007 Visa Outdoor Series and is filled with world leading performances. The footage is the same as was broadcast live by NBC, complete with their commentators: Tom Hammond, Lewis Johnson, Carol Lewis, Bob Neumeier, and Dwight Stone covering the field events. Usually there is a USATF symbol where the commercials would have been located, however during the 3,000 meter steeplechase they let the cameras role so you get to see the entire race without any interruption (including 2 ½ minutes of no commentary). In all, there are six different athlete interviews, an "Athlete Insight" of Kara Goucher, and the complete 2004 Athens Olympic 110 meter high hurdle race (from track level) also included during this telecast. This is the last meet to be held at historic Hayward Field before the 7.4 million dollar renovation leading to the 2008 US Olympic Trials.
At the end of this day six meet records, two US All-Comer’s records, and two National records all fall. Below is a quick look at the 14 running events (without too many spoilers) in the order in which they were contested:
Women’s 400 Low Hurdles: Featuring Melanie Walker and Sheena Johnson.
Men’s 100 Meters: With Darrel Brown and Leroy Dixon running into a -2.1 m/s headwind.
Men’s 3,000 Steeplechase: Complete race with Kenyan Paul Koech hurdling the water jump.
Men’s 800 Meters: Can Olympic Champion Yuri Borzakovskiy hold off upcoming American Nick Symmonds?
Women’s 100 High Hurdles: It’s Michelle Perry vs. Ginny Powell with five athletes under 13 seconds.
Men’s 110 High Hurdles: World Record holder Liu Xiang faces American Record holder Dominique Arnold.
Women’s 100 Meters: Watch Torri Edwards pull away at the finish.
Men’s 400 Meters: Gary Kikaya of Congo holds off Americans LaShawn Merritt and Angelo Taylor.
Women’s 1500 Meters: A meet record for Gelete Burka of Ethiopia.
Women’s 400 Meters: Sanya Richards opens her season here for the win.
Men’s 2 Mile Run: Craig Mottram sets an Australian Record and Matt Tegenkamp sets an American Record.
Women’s 800 Meters: The amazing Maria Mutola makes this her 15th consecutive meet win. Can she do it again next year?
Men’s 200 M: Carter, Crawford, Powell, Spearmon, and Wariner make for a loaded field.
Men’s Bowerman Mile: With six runners under four minutes, it is Kenyan Daniel Komen who steals the show with a US All-Comers record of 3:48.28.
Although the footage is great, it would have been nice if the production crew would have put chapters relating to each of the events, making it much easier to cue up those favorite races and avoid manually search from the beginning to get to the events that interest you most. It also would have been nice to include official results for all athletes instead of just the top three finishing times on screen. Complete results can be found at PreClassic.com. Also lacking were any additional interview questions or even brief trailers to advertise other USATF productions from the Track and Field Tour. Perhaps the USATF will incorporate some of these ideas into future DVD releases. Order your 96 minute DVD directly from the USATF where you can also view past productions dating back to 2002. USATF members get a discount on the price and shipping is a quite a bit for the first item, and free for each additional, so consider picking up more than one title when shopping.
