Local organizers say they want to pack Drake Stadium next month for the U.S.A. Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The meet, which runs June 19th through the 23rd will determine the qualifiers for the World Championships that will be held in Moscow in August.

Former Drake Relays director Mark Kostek is serving as competition manager and says a big crowd could help Des Moines attract an even bigger event down the road. “Our goal is to host the 2020 Olympic Trials. What we have to do, is we have to make a great call to the community. The community has to come out and support this event, because one of the things they want us to show them is how this championship looks on television,” Kostek says.

Kostek says if the state wants the trials they have to start now by coming to the event. He says it will be something that people “will probably never forget.” Kostek says it will be the most talented field that has ever competed at Drake Stadium.

“Besides having the U.S.A. Championship and the World Championship advancement, we also have the U.S.A. Junior Championship along with it,” Kostek says. He says that will bring the very best at all levels of track and field to Drake Stadium.

National events have become commonplace in Drake Stadium since it underwent a series of renovations seven years ago. He says they have hosted some type of national championship in each of those years and that should not be taken lightly.

The top three finishers in each event at next month’s meet will represent Team USA at the World Championships.

More than 5,000 runners of all ages raced through the streets of Des Moines on Sunday morning in the Hy-Vee Road Races at the Drake Relays on the final day of action at the 2013 Drake Relays presented by Hy-Vee. The Hy-Vee Road Races featured a half marathon, 10k and 6k races with all three finishing inside Drake Stadium as competitors raced for $120,000 in prize money.

That purse drew some of the world’s best road runners to Des Moines as fans watched the fastest men’s and women’s half marathon times run in Drake Relays history. Mark Kiptoo of Kenya won the men’s Hy-Vee Half Marathon and $12,000 first-place prize in 1:02.27 after switching to the event from the 10k race at the last minute.

The 10k race, benefitting the Healthiest State Initiative, also saw fast times on a beautiful morning in Des Moines. Emmanuel Bett, who owned the fastest 10,000-meter time in the world last year, easily won the race in 28:25.

Seven Drake Relays record fell during Saturday’s session which drew a sellout crowd of better than 14,500 fans. In all, six world best marks were established.

A new era begins for the Drake Relays this week. A new multi-year sponsorship from Hy-Vee has allowed the event to attract many of the top performers of the 2012 London Olympics. Drake Relays director Brian Brown says it has resulted in full fields and has put Drake on par with the Penn Relays which are always the same weekend in Philadelphia.

“There’s a lot of folks who want in who are not in, and that’s what you want, you want it to be something that people are vying for,” Brown says. He says they have a good rivalry with the other relays.

Brown says with involvement of Hy-Vee the Drake Relays will no longer be considered the “little brother” to the Penn Relays. He says it is important to have strong partners to be able to “present excellence all the time.”

The Drake Relays begin Tuesday with the running of the Grand Blue Mile in downtown Des Moines.

Officials with the Drake Relays don’t expect to make any changes in their security plan in the wake of Monday’s bomb attack at the Boston Marathon. Drake will offer three road races on Sunday, April 28th and director Brian Brown says the Relays already coordinates its security plan with local, state and federal officials.

“Every year there’s an emergency plan, every year there’s great coordination between all of the entities, not just Drake, but certainly the city,” Brown says. “We feel very confident that we continue to present an event that is safe. There’s nothing more important than that. Certainly yesterday’s event is very sad, but we feel like we’re prepared.”

The Relays expanded by a day to offer a 6K, 10K, and half marathon on Sunday. The change will allow all three road races to finish in Drake Stadium and Brown says the new courses for this year required a new security plan. Brown says overall it’s not much different for what they do for any other events they hold on campus.

Brown says law enforcement officials have not recommended any changes in the wake on Monday’s attack in Boston.

“If there is anything that changes in terms of our preparation and our emergency plan, if it changes to where we need to inform the public of something that is different, we’ll make sure the public is aware,” Brown says. He says they are constantly looking at their plans and making changes every year to update them.