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EUGENE, Ore. -- World champion Kenenisa Bekele hopes to break his world record in the 10,000 meters on June 8 in the Nike Prefontaine Classic, which would be his first race in the United States.
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The 25-year-old Ethiopian, who also holds the world record in the 5,000, will try to lower the time of 26 minutes, 17.53 seconds he set three years ago in Brussels, Belgium.
Bekele's agent Jos Hermens told Prefontaine organizers that this will be "an absolutely serious attempt."
The race will start at 9:30 a.m. PDT, which is before the meet officially begins, to take advantage of weather conditions.
"We compiled 20 years of data about wind conditions, humidity, temperature -- you name it," meet director Tom Jordan said. "The conditions are slightly better during the morning than the evening."
Even if he fails to get the record, Bekele has a good chance of the fastest 10,000 ever run in the United States, a mark of 27:04.20 set by Abraham Chebbii in 2001.
Bekele was scheduled to run the two-mile at the Prefontaine last year but pulled out, saying he had not fully recovered from the world cross country championships in March.
