Rachid Ramzi, the 2005 double world champion, leads a solid slate of athletes announced this week for the Prefontaine Classic on May 28 in Eugene, Oregon.

At last summer's World Championships in Helsinki, the Moroccan-born Ramzi became the first man to win global titles at 800 and 1500 meters since Peter Snell accomplished the feat at the 1964 Olympic Games. The 26-year-old Ramzi, who now competes for Bahrain, followed up his Helsinki victories with a runner-up finish in the 1500 at the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels, before a disappointing pair of races in September, running fourth in the 800 in Berlin's ISTAF race and a distant eighth in the 1500 at the World Athletics Final.

In last year's Prefontaine race, Ramzi finished second behind Kenyan Alex Kipchirchir, clocking a Bahraini national record of 3:51.33. Kipchirchir, who raced to gold in the 800 at this year's Commonwealth Games, is also slated to return. Americans Bernard Lagat, Alan Webb and Jason Lunn are also in field, along with Kenyans Laban Rotich and Elkanah Angwenyi, Canadians Nate Brannen and Kevin Sullivan, and Mo Farah of Great Britain.

Lagat, who lowered the U.S. record to 3:29.30 last August in Rieti, Italy, opened his outdoor season at last weekend's Penn Relays, where he was edged on the anchor leg of the distance medley relay by Kipchirchir. Webb, the defending US champion in the 1500, made his 2006 outdoor debut on Sunday, where he produced a notable 27:34.72 victory in the 10,000 meters at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational. It was his first attempt at the distance.

Other fields for the premiere one-day U.S. meet also also taking shape. Olympic champions Justin Gatlin and Shawn Crawford are slated to compete in the 100, along with Leonard Scott, the recently-minted World indoor champion in the 60 meters. Jamaicans Michael Frater and Dwight Thomas, and Darrel Brown from Trinidad, were also announced. Conspicuously missing is world record holder Asafa Powell, who is expected to compete in the 200.

Walter Davis, the reigning triple jump world champion both indoors and out, is set to face Olympic champion Christian Olsson of Sweden. Olsson hasn't competed since the 2004 World Athletics Final, and has undergone four surgeries on his right foot since.

The women's long jump field includes a wide array of champions: Tianna Madison, the reigning world champion outdoors, Russian Tatyana Kotova, who leaped to the world indoor title in March, and Tatyana Lebedeva, the Olympic champion. Dwight Phillips, the world and Olympic champion, tops the men's long jump field.