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June 14, 2000 -- Beaverton, OR -- Track & Field fans around the world will be able follow all the action taking place at The University of Oregon's storied Hayward Field as the 26th Annual Prefontaine Classic unfolds on Saturday, June 24th. CBS Sports will broadcast one hour of the meet, between noon and 1 pm PDT, while nike.com will host a live webcast beginning at 11:30 am PDT that will run through the meet's final event, the men's 5,000 meters.

"This year's Pre Classic will be special in a number of ways," said Nike chairman Philip H. Knight. "Just prior to the meet's first event, many of Bill Bowerman's greatest student athletes will gather to pay tribute to the 'professor of competitive response' who passed away last Christmas Eve. With many great events packed into the live CBS Sports window, none will be more compelling than the newly named Bowerman Mile, which will feature 15 sub-4 minute milers and a high school boy hoping to be the first to break that barrier in 33 years. And, of course, the nike.com webcast will follow every step of the Prefontaine 5K, as well as many other great events not covered in the television broadcast."

Indeed, the nike.com webcast will allow fans to experience the Pre Classic from all angles, and at transmission rates from 56k to 300k. In addition to live event coverage, there will be tributes to Bill Bowerman and Steve Prefontaine, profiles of the meet's biggest stars, and a chat feature that will allow users to post comments and ask athletes questions during post-race interviews.

A help page will go live on Tuesday, June 20th to provide users with instructions for downloading media players, setting buffers and making other adjustments to optimize the broadcast. This page will also include a link to email questions to the technical staff at 1st Byte Media, the folks behind the scenes of nike.com's first live webcast.

Nike, Inc., based in Beaverton, OR, markets its products in more than 100 countries and is the world's leading sports and fitness company.

For More Information: Keith.Peters@nike.com 503.671.4470

Special thanks to 
Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Coordinator for providing us this press release.
USATF Road Running Information Center
5522 Camino Cerralvo, Santa Barbara, CA 93111
(805) 696-6232, fax (805) 696-6252
http://www.usaldr.org