Tartan Track To Launch Olympic Hopefuls at Pre Classic
Historic Hayward Field Surface Sparks Premier Performances

By Marc Bloom

The names, synonymous with track and field greatness, unite to elevate American athletes to performances that perhaps only dreams can envision. Hayward Field. The University of Oregon. Eugene. And Tartan tracks.

It was Steve Prefontaine's dream to create a track-for-all environment in the United States. That dream has been realized in Eugene, Oregon, Track City USA, where the elite, near-elite and their disciples train day after day, virtually around-the-clock, on the 8-lane Tartan track at Hayward Field, in pursuit of personal bests. The crystallization of their efforts -- the embodiment of Eugene's marquee devotion to track as a way of life -- will come June 19 when the 30th annual Prefontaine Classic is held as a launching pad for this summer's Olympic Trials and the Games in Athens.

All athletes dream of making the Olympic team. From high school on, athletes with thousands of miles in their legs, are driven to this moment: the chance to make the U.S. team. This season's timing of the Pre Classic, considered America's premier track meet and an IAAF Grand Prix event, couldn't be better. Twenty days later, on July 9, the U.S. Olympic Trials get under way in Sacramento.

The Hayward Field Tartan surface, installed by Athletic Polymer Systems (APS) in the fall of 2000, will play a crucial role in the Olympic timetable. Athletes counting on the Pre meet as a pre-Trials test must rely on the tracks speed. They must also rely on the track's durability for the ultimate in comfort. No injuries, please; the surface must be athlete-friendly without question. Speed plus durability, an elusive combination for any track. Hayward Fields got it, and the athletes respond.

"They say we're the Carnegie Hall of track and field," said Pre Classic meet director Tom Jordan.
"The track is part of that."

Tartan--the original polyurethane surface and a leader in track surfacing for more than 50 years--is the track of choice for major facilities nationwide. This year, in April, a new Tartan surface was unveiled at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California. Other facilities with Tartan tracks include Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, California, site of the Mt. SAC Relays and Stanford University, site of the Payton Jordan U.S. Open meet, May 31, where Maurice Greene's 9.78 100 meters (wind-aided) added more evidence of the track's speed.

Both the Prefontaine Classic and U.S. Open are part of the 2004 USA Track & Field Golden Spike Tour.

Athletes and coaches felt that previous OTC surfaces were too hard, inducing injury. APS came to the rescue. "A track's hardness, said Mike Albers of APS, is based on the materials used and thickness of the surface. Tartan's dual durometer system combines the most technically advanced polyurethane with a combination of natural and synthetic rubber granules, said Albers. This provides athletes with the best of both worlds in training and performance."

"The most impressive thing to me is how well the track has held up," said Jordan. "There's no facility in the country used more than Hayward Field. Almost any time of day, or night, someone is doing a workout."

No one knows that better than the University of Oregon head coach, Martin Smith. "I've been extremely pleased with the surface," said Smith, completing his 6th year in Eugene as one of America's leading coaches. "The track has to have a perfect blend--being outstanding for training as well as an elite-level competition track yielding outstanding performances. That's a difficult balance to achieve, but we feel the track serves both masters."

Smith's squad of close to 90 men and women use the track Monday through Friday, from 2 P.M. to 6 P.M., throughout the year. In a unique relationship with Eugenes running community, Hayward Field is then open to everyone, free of charge, at all other hours. You can drive by at midnight and see the silhouette of runners, from national champions to weight-loss-minded joggers, circling the Tartan surface.

In Eugene, your neighbors can be Olympians. Local stars like Marla Runyan, who is running the Pre Classic 1,500 meters and hopes to make her second Olympic team this summer, trains on the Hayward Field track. Olympic aspirants training with coach Bill Dellinger, the Oregon legend who led Ducks teams for 26 years and coached Prefontaine himself, use the track. Coach Dick Brown, who worked with Eugene's own Mary Slaney during her peak years, has a training group using the track.

In addition, a relatively new club, Team XO, made up of recent post-collegiate athletes, an often neglected group, uses the track. Lack of opportunity for post-collegians is often cited as a reason Americans have found it hard to keep up internationally in events above the 400 meters. Team XO (XO stands for ex-Oregon) has 45 athletes, men and women, in all events including the distances. If not for the Hayward Field track, the club would probably not exist.

"The biggest thing post-collegians are seeking is a home," said club director Ross Krempley, 26, a former Ducks 800 runner who started the group with two former teammates two years ago. "The facility, the track. We took that for granted in college. Now it's a huge thing for us. We love that place."

As much as any other group, Team XO stands as testimony to the value of the track as an invaluable community resource. In addition to preparing for major events like the Olympic Trials, the club already has 7 Trials qualifiers. Team XO conducts a summer track camp for youngsters and recently staged a high school invitational meet at Hayward Field. For Team XO, the track is indeed home.

"All of us still work out on the track," said Krempley. "We're a little spoiled, and when we run somewhere else we're always disappointed. We're in a good position to be able to say that. There are so many excellent performances on that track. From masters, high school, the University, the elite. I'd say, it's the track center of the universe."

In the first months that the new Tartan track was used, spring 2001 (80 years after track and field began at Hayward Field), performances were sensational. That season, the facility, which has hosted three Olympic Trials, was the site of both the NCAA and USA national championships as well as, of course, the Prefontaine Classic. The performance of the year came at Pre, where 18 year-old Alan Webb, choosing Hayward Field for his long-awaited outdoor sub-4:00 attempt, entered the pantheon of American greats with his 3:53.43 high school mile. Webb, from South Lakes High in Virginia, broke Jim Ryuns 36-year-old high school record while placing 5th in the Bowerman Mile. Webb crossed the finish to delirious joyhis own emotion and that of the capacity crowd of 11,221 plus the track community at-largewhile placing only a stride behind world championship silver medalist Bernard Lagat of Kenya. Webb became an instant celebrity, even appearing on Letterman. The wonder and promise of a young miler knocking at the door of world stardom was a break-out phenomenon. Indeed, Webb finished only 25 meters behind Pre winner Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco, the world mile recordholder who ran 3:49.92, a U.S. all-comers record.

After that time, Webb struggled. He left the University of Michigan after his freshman year, turned pro and returned to Virginia to train with his high school coach. Counted out by many in the sport, Webb has come alive this year, building strength through cross-country and returning to the elite level with his recent 3:33.70 1500 at Hengelo, Holland, equivalent to a 3:51 mile. At this time, when Webb is poised to finally show his Olympic potential at the track and field trials and return to the spotlight, he will use the Prefontaine Classic as a showcase for his immense talent. Webb will again run the Bowerman Mile, the meets climactic race.

And you can bet that after the Pre meet concludes on the afternoon of June 19, runners from the Eugene community will come onto the track well into the night. They will seek to capture the residue of greatness, using the days aura for inspiration, springing off the Tartan surface with lift in their legs and hunger in their hearts.

"It's a completely open venue," said Martin Smith, whose coaching career spans 30 years. "The diversity and use that the track receives. I don't think that exists anywhere else like it does here."

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For more information on Athletic Polymer Systems, based in Corona, California,, contact Mike Albers at APS: [email protected], or Marc Bloom: [email protected].