EUGENE, Oregon — American Olympic silver medallist Galen Rupp ran the year's fastest 10,000 meters to break his national record at the opening session of the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting Friday. With British Olympic gold medalist and training partner Mo Farah cheering him on, Rupp powered home in 26 minutes, 44.36 seconds to defeat Kenyan world bronze medalist Paul Tanui by five seconds at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field, his home track. Only Ethiopian world record holder Kenenisa Bekele has run faster (26:25.97) on American soil. "I surprised myself a little bit to run that fast," said the 28-year-old Rupp, who bettered the US record of 26:48.00 he set at Brussels in 2011. "I wasn't thinking about the time until a quarter mile to go, the last lap," the Oregon native added. Reese Hoffa claimed his third consecutive Prefontaine Classic shot put title with a throw of 21.64 metres. Joe Kovacs was second (21.46m) while Christian Cantwell place third, completing a US podium sweep with a toss of 21.38m. Serbia's Ivana Spanovic won the women's long jump with a leap of 6.88m while Job Kinyor finished first in the men's international 800 metres with a time of 1:44.70. The Prefontaine Classic is the third race in the IAAF Diamond League series. It is named after legendary American middle-distance runner Steve Prefontaine, who died in a single car smash near Hayward Field in 1975. Kenyan Olympic champion and world record holder David Rudisha returns from a year-long knee injury to face a high quality 800 meters field to highlight Saturday's action. — Agencies
