Alysia Montaño, a local Santa Clarita Valley athlete, will be competing at the 39th annual Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon this weekend.
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Montaño is a member of Canyon High School’s 2004 graduating class.
Montaño was named the USA Track and Field’s Athlete of the Week back in February after setting an American record in the 600m at the Millrose Games in New York.
Montaño’s time of 1:23:59 broke the previous American record of 1:26:56, which was set by Delisa Walton in 1981.
Montaño’s time was the seventh fastest in history. She was less than two-tenths of a second off of the world record.
Montaño will be competing in the 800m this weekend.
“For this weekend, Alysia’s coach and I talked and we at least want to see her get a qualifying time for a world championship, which we really have a lot of confidence in her to do, she’s done it time and time again, it’s not really that hard for her anymore to break two minutes,” said Montaño’s husband, Louis Montaño. “As far as that, we really just kind of hope for the best… I think the race is stacked and it’s a possibility that she can may PR, run a better time than her personal best. The people in the race with her will definitely be at the world championships this year, they were at the Olympics. It’s probably one of the most stacked races that you’ll see in the 800m until the world championship final.”
The Prefontaine Classic is named after legendary runner, Steve Prefontaine, one of the best in the world at the time of his death in 1975.
The Prefontaine Classic, one of the largest track and field events in the world, has been sponsored by NIKE for 30 years in a row.
The event will be televised from on Saturday, June 1 at 1:30-3:00 p.m., Pacific Standard Time on NBC.
For more information on the Prefontaine Classic, please go to http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=120
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