Stacy Dragila, 4 top hurdlers on tap for adidas Track Classic
Allen Johnson, Dominique Arnold, Joanna Hayes and Michelle Perry headline hurdle fields

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Posted Friday, 11 May, 2007

CARSON, Calif. (May 10) - Pole vault star Stacy Dragila will continue her comeback, while Olympic gold medalist Allen Johnson and new American Record-holder Dominique Arnold will lead a top-flight 110-meter hurdles field at the adidas Track Classic on May 20, organizers announced today.

Headlining the women's 100-meter hurdles will be Olympic gold medalist Joanna Hayes and reigning World Champion Michelle Perry. Both are well known in the Los Angeles area: Hayes, whose winning time of 12.37 is an Olympic record, lives in L.A. and is a product of John W. North High School in Riverside; Perry, a four-time All-American while at UCLA, lives in Palmdale and attended Quartz Hill High School there.

Dragila, whose 2000 Olympic gold medal was the first ever awarded in the women's pole vault, is also a two-time World Champion and nine-time U.S. outdoor champion. A former World Record-holder, at 36 she still holds the American Record of 15 feet, 10 inches, set in 2004, and four times has ranked #1 in the world. At the adidas Track Classic, she will face new American rival Jenn Stuczynski, ranked the #1 US vaulter in 2006 and #6 in the world.

Stuczynski is the reigning US champion both indoors and outdoors, and has quickly risen to become the #2 American all-time to Dragila.

In addition to his 1996 Olympic gold medal, Johnson has won seven World titles: four outdoor and three indoor. He, too, is a seven-time U.S. Champion, and at the age of 36 was ranked #2 in the world for 2006.

Arnold, a lifelong resident of the Los Angeles area, enjoyed the best season of his career so far in 2006, when he won a bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships and followed that up by breaking Roger Kingdom's American Record of 12.92, set in 1989, when he ran 12.90 in Lausanne, Switzerland, on July 11. Born in Compton, Arnold competed for Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach and then Long Beach City College. He now lives in Diamond Bar.

They will join Allyson Felix, the reigning 200m World Champion; Jeremy Wariner, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist at 400m; Tyson Gay, the fastest 100m-200m combo sprinter in history; Ana Guevara, the 2003 World Champion at 400m and Mexican hero; and Meseret Defar, the 5000m Olympic gold medalist and World Record-holder who has her eye on the 2-Mile World Record here.

The adidas Track Classic will begin at noon on May 20 at The Home Depot Center, on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills, and will be broadcast live on ESPN from 1 p.m.-3 p.m. PDT (4 p.m.-6 p.m. EDT).

Produced by Global Athletics & Marketing, Inc., the adidas Track Classic is the second stop of USA Track & Field's Visa Championship Series. Tickets, from $40 (finish line) down to $10, are now available by calling Ticketmaster at 213-480-3232 or visiting www.TicketMaster.com. For group sales, call 1-877-AEG-TICKETS. Visit the event website at www.adidastrackclassic.com for updates and more information.

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