American Jenny Simpson won the women’s 1,500-meter race at the Prefontaine Classic Saturday afternoon at Hayward Field. It’s the first time an American has won this race since Christin Wurth-Thomas did in 2005.
Simpson kicked past fellow American Shannon Rowbury off the Bowerman Curve to take the lead in the final 100 and finish in 4 minutes .98 seconds.
“Being able to transition from the really hard grind of practice to coming out in front of a stadium full of people that are super hyped up in a place that I personally care about performing well at and running well here and actually executing — it feels good,” she said.
Kenya’s Mercy Cherono ran a personal best to come in second with a time of 4:01.26 and was followed by Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands in 4:01.65.
Alexa Efraimson, the youngest competitor in the field at 18, returned to Eugene for the first time after competing at the IAAF World Youth Championships last summer. She ran a personal best of 4:03 to come in seventh and broke Mary Cain’s U.S. prep record of 4:04.62.
Simpson, the IAAF Diamond Trophy winner in this event last year, is encouraged by the race she considers the official start of her season. For most of the race, Simpson followed the pace and ran in second and third before finally making her move. And while Simpson has found success at Hayward over her career, this is her first victory in this particular meet.
“I made my first Olympic team here, world championship teams here, NCAAs were here,” said Simpson. “If you’re an American distance runner or just any American track and field athlete and you’ve made teams, a lot of them have been here, so it’s a special place.”
