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≡ GRAND SLAM TRACK I ≡
The final day of the first Grand Slam Track meet in Kingston (JAM) finished on Sunday with the winners of the first race taking the second as well in five of the eight events.
Attendance appeared to be down on Sunday, vs. Saturday evening, with perhaps 8,000 in the 35,000-seat National Stadium. Scoring in each event group (two races) was 12-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 and the placers in each group won $100,000-50,000-30,000-25,000-20,000-15,000-12,500-10,000.
The races:
● Women/100 m (short hurdles):
Having hurdlers – short and long – run sprints – 100 and 400 m – is one of the fun aspects of Grand Slam Track and a possible jumping-off point for some to run on their national 4×100 or 4×400 m teams later in the season. But not with Sunday’s windy conditions.
Tia Jones of the U.S. came in with the upset win in the 100 m hurdles, with Danielle Williams (JAM) second, but Denisha Cartwright (BAH) got the best start. Jamaican stars Ackera Nugent and then Williams took over and Williams won going away in 11.54 into a 3.4 m/s headwind!
Nugent was second in 11.57, ahead of Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (PUR: 11.73), with Jones in sixth (12.26). So, Williams won the Slam with 20 points, to 15 for Jones and 13 for Nugent.
● Men/400 m (long hurdles):
Brazil’s Alison dos Santos, the 2022 World Champion, was an easy winner in the 400 m hurdles, but now was running on the flat. Caleb Dean of the U.S. went out hard in lane six, ahead of dos Santos and the Brazilian was squeezed by 2024 400H NCAA runner-up Chris Robinson from behind.
But in the home straight, Dean faded, Robinson looked like a possible winner, but dos Santos timed his surge perfectly and got to the line first in 45.52, ahead of Robinson (45.54 lifetime best) and Dean (45.68).
That gave dos Santos the Slam with a perfect 24 points, ahead of Jamaican Roshawn Clarke (13 points) and then Dean (12) and Robinson (11).
● Women/5,000 m (long distance):
Ethiopia’s Ejgayehu Taye won the 3,000 m on Friday, but Kenya’s Agnes Ngetich, the road 10 km world-record holder, took off from the gun and had a huge lead after three laps. But Taye had caught up with five laps to go.
They ran together, way ahead of the rest of the pack, with Taye breaking away with 200 m to go as Ngetich touched her from behind, sprinting home in an outdoor world-leading 14:54.88, to win the Slam with a perfect 24 points. Ngetich was second in 14:59.80 and then Tsige Gebreselama (ETH: 15:24.62).
Ngetich was second in both races and was second in the Slam with 16, with Gebreselama third in both for third overall (16).
● Men/100 m (short hurdles):
American Dylan Beard upset the field in the 110 m hurdles, so could he pull another shocker in the 100? No.
The race was close off the start, but three-time French hurdles champ Sasha Zhoya surged into the lead by mid-way and won by daylight in 10.55, into a 2.0 m/s headwind. American Cordell Tinch came up for second in a tight finish with Beard and fellow American Eric Edwards, in 10.65-10.67-10.68. So Zhoya won the Slam on 20 points, but Beard got 16 and Tinch, only fifth in the hurdles race, was third overall with 12.
● Men/800 m (short distance):
Kenya’s Olympic 800 m champ Emmanuel Wanyonyi humiliated the 1,500 m stars by winning a (relatively) slow 1,500 m in a lifetime best 3:35.18. Canadian Marco Arop, the Olympic 800 m silver winner, took the lead, with Wanyonyi and American Bryce Hoppel gapped the field by the bell.
Arop was in front with 200 m to go and stormed down the straight for the win in 1:45.13, with Wanyonyi well back in 1:46.44 and American Record holder Hoppel third in 1:47.02. That gave the Slam to Wanyonyi (20), over Arop (15) and Yared Nuguse of the U.S., sixth in the 800 m and scoring 11 points. It was all about the 800 m runners in this Slam.
● Men/3,000 m (long distance):
American Grant Fisher stormed to the win in the 5,000 m in Friday, but it was Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet – the 2023 World Road 5 km gold medalist – and Telahun Haile Bekele ran away at the start, and Gebrhiwet was in front for good with four laps to go. He won easily in 7:51.55 with Haile Bekele second in 8:00.68.
But Fisher made sure he was third – sprinting past countryman Dylan Jacobs in the last 50 m, in 8:03.85 – ahead of Ronald Kwemoi (KEN: 8:04.12), and won the Slam with 18 points, vs. 17 for Gebrhiwet and 12 for American Cooper Teare.
● Women/200 m (short sprints):
Olympic 100 m bronze winner Melissa Jefferson won the 100 m over Jenna Prandini of the U.S., but Prandini held a slight lead coming into the straight. Those two ran together for another 50 m, but Jefferson edged ahead to win in 23.46, against a big headwind of 4.7 m/s, with Prandini as 23.56.
Just as in the 100, American Jacious Sears was third again (23.79) and the Slam had those three in order: Jefferson (24), Prandini (16, pretty good for a late replacement!) and Sears (12).
● Women/400 m (long hurdles):
So here was Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone to close the meet after having won the 400 m hurdles on Friday, and she did not disappoint, moving well from lane six off the gun and making the first stagger ahead of her by the 200 m mark.
She was well in front by 300 m and cruised to the win in 50.32 against the difficult wind, even so, now no. five on the 2025 outdoor world list.
Jamaica’s Andrenette Knight got second over Dalilah Muhammad of the U.S., 52.09 to 52.21, so McLaughlin-Levrone won the Slam with 24 points, to 14 for Muhammad and 13 for Knight.
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That this concept was actually held at all was noteworthy and congratulations are due to Founder and Commissioner Michael Johnson. The critiques can wait for a day or so, with the next edition – and no doubt some changes – coming in Miramar, Florida on 2-4 May.
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