Mullings, Sinclair in spotlight

EUGENE, Oregon (AP):

Jamaica's Steve Mullings and Kenia Sinclair hit top form at the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon yesterday clocking fast times in the men's 100 metres and women's 800 metres, respectively.

Mullings won the 100m in a personal best and meet record 9.80, the third best time on American soil and the sixth fastest man ever behind Usain Bolt, American Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell, Nesta Carter and retired American Maurice Greene.

Justin Gatlin, who last year came off a four-year suspension for doping, finished sixth in 9.97, his first result under 10 seconds since his return.

Gatlin, who won the 100m at the Prefontaine in 2005 and 2006, was reinstated last year and has recently been competing in minor meets in Europe. He is still excluded from major European events, and Rajne Soderberg, the director of the Stockholm Diamond League event, said in an email Friday that the ban still holds.

Semenya second

Sinclair defeated a world class field to win the women's two-lap event in world-leading 1:58.29.

World champion Caster Semenya of South Africa, 1:58.88, was second in the 800m, while third went to former World and Commonwealth Games champion Kenya's Janeth Jepkosgei in 1:59.15.

Amantle Montsho of Botswana won the 400m in 50.59 seconds, while American Allyson Felix crossed the line in 51.41 to trail fellow American Debbie Dunn by 0.04. Felix is a three-time world champion and a two-time Olympic silver medalist in the 200. Jamaica's Shericka Williams was sixth in 52.16.

In the first meeting between American Carmelita Jeter and Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce since 2009, Jeter won the women's 100m in a meet record 10.70, a world best this season. Fraser finished fourth in 10.95. The pair have met 15 times, with Jeter holding an 8-7 advantage. American Marshevet Myers was second in 10.86 and Jamaica's Kerron Stewart third in 10.87.

Meet record

Walter Dix defended his Pre-fontaine 200 title in 20.19 seconds. He set the meet record in the event last year running in 19.72.

American David Oliver, the bronze medalist in the 110 hurdles at the 2008 Olympics, won the event in 12.94, besting Liu Xiang of China by 0.06.

Angelo Taylor, two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 400 hurdles, won the 400 metres in 45.16. South Africa's Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee known as the Blade Runner, finished last in the field in 46.33. Pistorius needs to run the event in 45.25 to qualify for the World Championships this summer.

Abubaker Kaki Khamis won the men's 800 in a meet record 1:43.68. Former University of Oregon star Andrew Wheating finished fifth and Nick Symmonds of the Oregon Track Club finished eighth.

Kenya's Ezekiel Kemboi won the men's steeplechase in 8:08.34.

Ukranian triple jumper Olha Saladukha won her event with a leap of 49 feet, 1.75 inches on her 29th birthday.

American Lashinda Demus defended her Prefontaine title in the women's 400 hurdles in 53.31, best in the world this season. Jamaica's Kaliese Spencer was second in 53.45 and Melaine Walker, the World and Olympic champion, third in 53.56.

Ethiopia's Gelete Burka of the Netherlands won the 1,500 in 4:04.63.

The Pre Classic, in its 37th year, was named for American distance runner Steve Prefontaine, an Olympian and Oregon native who died at 24 in 1975.

In several distance events contested on Friday night as part of the meet, Kenya's Moses Mosop broke a world record by running the 30,000 metres in 1 hour, 26 minutes, 47.4 seconds. Mosop also broke the 25,000-metre world record en route in 1:12:25.4.

Both records were held by Japan's Toshihiko Seko, who ran the rarely contested 30k in 1:29:18.8 and the 25k in 1:13:55.8 in the same race at Christchurch in 1981.

England's Mo Farah, who trains in Oregon under famed marathoner Alberto Salazar, won the men's 10k in 26:46.57, breaking the 10-year-old British record of 27:18.14 held by Jon Brown. Kenya's Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya won the 5,000 metres in 14:33.96.