Track star Faith Kipyegon to headline Pre Classic in Eugene

The four-time world champion has fond memories of Eugene, having won six times at Hayward Field over the years, including at the Diamond League Final in 2023.

The race is scheduled for nine days after Kipyegon’s impending sub-4 minute mile attempt, a project dubbed Nike "Breaking 4" set for June 26 in Paris.

Kipyegon, who has six Diamond Trophies to her name, launched her Diamond League campaign with a bang in Xiamen on April 26, where she narrowly missed out on a 1000m world record at the season opener in China, clocking 2 minutes 29.21 seconds.

She will be joined by fellow Paris Olympic Games podium finishers Jessica Hull of Australia and Georgia Bell from Great Britain.

Hull is the current world record holder over 2000m and earned silver at the 2024 Paris Olympics while Bell took home bronze, and recently earned another global medal with her third place finish at the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships.

‘Audacious goal’

About the sub-4 minute mile attempt, Kipyegon sees this challenge as pushing human limits, not just chasing records.

“To run under four minutes in the mile as a woman is not something you just go and do with a smile,” Kipyegon said. “It won’t be easy—I know it will be tough—but people say ‘dare to try,’ and I’m going to dare to try to be the first woman to do it, because that’s what I’m aiming for now.”

The event will take place on a closed course and feature a team of pacemakers to guide Kipyegon through the demanding pace—conditions that make the race ineligible for official world record ratification by athletics governing bodies.

But for Kipyegon, this attempt is about more than records; it’s about pushing the limits of human performance.

“Somebody posted an article saying I’d be the first woman to break four minutes, and I was like—who said that? It’s not official yet,” she added.

Kipyegon currently holds the world record for the mile at 4:07.64, set in the summer of 2023.

Chipping away over seven seconds from that mark may seem impossible to some, but the 31-year-old middle-distance legend is undeterred.

As part of the Breaking4 initiative, Nike has hinted at introducing innovative apparel for the attempt, including a new speed suit and advanced sports bra engineered to deliver marginal performance gains that could make all the difference over four laps.