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≡ GRAND SLAM TRACK ≡
The third of four Grand Slam Track events for 2025 concluded at Philadelphia’s Franklin Field on Sunday, with two sprint world leads (well, one and an equals):
● Men/100 m: 9.86 (=), Kenny Bednarek (USA)
● Women/100 m: 10.73, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden (USA)
Conditions were good again with some clouds and very comfortable 69 F temperatures at the start of the meet, and fans turned out strongly once again, filling the home straight and most of the back straight, again perhaps 18,000 in the house.
The races:
● Men/400 m: (long hurdles)
Brazil’s 2022 World 400 m hurdles champ Alison dos Santos won all five of his Slam races coming into Sunday, and he started in lane seven, just inside world no. 3 Chris Robinson of the U.S.
NCAA hurdles champ Caleb Dean got out best and was clearly in the lead down the straight. But around the turn, dos Santos was making up the ground on Robinson and they were close into the straight. Dean faded, and dos Santos and Robinson dueled down the straight, while 2022 Worlds hurdles bronzer Trevor Bassitt came up in the middle of the track.
While Robinson was literally leaping to the finish line to edge dos Santos, Bassitt sped to the front and crossed first in 45.47, with Robinson at 45.62 and dos Santos suffering his first Slam race loss, at 45.63. Dean was fourth at 46.01.
Bassitt won the Slam with 20 points, ahead of dos Santos with 18, then Robinson (14) and Dean (10).
● Women/400 m: (long hurdles)
Olympic hurdles bronze winner Anna Cockrell won the hurdles on Saturday and was out well in the flat 400, moving well on the back straight. But it was Britain’s Lina Nielsen who had the lead in lane two (!), maybe out of the sight of Jamaicans Rushell Clayton and Andrenette Knight, battling in lanes seven and eight.
Into the straight, Nielsen was the clear leader, but the fastest mover was U.S. hurdles Olympian Jasmine Jones, who powered into second. While Nielsen was first in 52.60, Jones got second at 52.73, ahead of Knight (52.87) and Clayton (53.17). Cockrell was sixth in 53.35.
Jones won the Slam with 18 points, edging Cockrell at 15, and Nielsen (15), and Knight in fourth with 12.
● Women/800 m: (short distances)
American Olympian Nikki Hiltz was second in both the Kingston and Miramar Slams in this group and was the world leader for a while with her surprise 800 win in Jamaica.
American Addy Wiley took over at the bell chased by 2023 World Champion Mary Moraa (KEN) and 1,500 m winner Diribe Welteji (ETH). With 200 m to go, Moraa got to the lead, followed by Welteji and suddenly Paris 1,500 m runner-up Jess Hull (AUS) coming hard around the turn.
In the straight, Welteji led, with Georgia Hunter-Bell (GBR) coming fastest, past Hull. But Welteji got to the line first to sweep the Slam in 1:58.94, to 1:58.99, then Hull in third in 1:59.63 and Abbey Caldwell (AUS: 2:00.57). Hiltz was not with the lead group and finished seventh in 2:01.43.
Welteji took the Slam with 24, then Hull at 14 with two terrific races, then Hunter-Bell (13) and Caldwell (9) .
● Men/100 m: (short hurdles)
Trey Cunningham won this race easily in Miramar with a lifetime best of 10.17, but Jamal Britt won the hurdles on Saturday and had the Slam lead.
Cunningham got out well, but had the lead by mid-race and was the clear winner at 10.36 (wind: -1.9 m/s)
Britt was strong as well, did not challenge Cunningham, but was a clear second in 10.50, just ahead of Lorenzo Simonelli (ITA: 10.52). Hurdles world leader Cordell Tinch of the U.S. got a lifetime best of 10.57 in fourth.
Britt, who noted afterwards that he’s unsponsored, won the Slam – and $100,000 – with 20 points, ahead of Cunningham (18), Tinch (13) and Simonelli (10).
● Women/100 m (short hurdles)
There was less interest in the Slam winner – Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent was the prohibitive favorite – than to see what Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was going to do, not having run the 100 since she was at Kentucky in 2018!
Nugent got out well and took control by 35 m and ran away to win in 11.11 (+0.1), but McLaughlin-Levrone was clearly second, finishing in a lifetime best of 11.21, with Swiss Dita Kumbundji getting third in a lifetime best of 11.41 and Danielle Williams (JAM: 11.44) in fourth.
Nugent won the Slam with 24 points, with McLaughlin-Levrone second with 12, then Tia Jones (10) and Jamaican Megan Tapper (9).
● Men/3,000 m: (long distances)
With the compressed schedule, this is the only race in this Slam, with halved prize money, of course. U.S. star Grant Fisher, the winner of the first two Slams, did not start.
Kenya’s Ronald Kwemoi led the race through the first half, but everyone was together. At about 2,000 m, Australia’s 2023 NCAA 5,000 m champ Ky Robinson took over, chased by American 10,000 m Olympian Nico Young and Edwin Kurgat (KEN).
With 600 to go, Robinson and Young were 1-2, with Ireland’s Andrew Coscoran who won the Miramar 3,000 m, close by At the bell, Robinson, Young and Coscoran led, but it was anybody’s race.
Robinson was still in front with 200 to go, with American Graham Blanks trying to get by but Young moved to lane two and ran away to win easily in 8:01.03. Fellow American Sam Gilman sprinted past everyone else in the final 10 m to get second (8:01.70), with Robinson third in 8:01.92) and Coscoran fourth (8:02.17).
The Slam was decided by the one race, so Young took home the Slam title and $50,000.
● Women/200 m: (long sprints)
Olympic 400 m champ Marileidy Paulino (DOM) was the favorite after her Saturday win, and got off very well, leading into the straight. She pulled away in the final 75 m and was a clear winner in 22.46 (+1.6).
Bella Whittaker of the U.S. was a clear second in 22.82 – coming from fifth with 50 m left – then Jessika Gbai (IRL) in 22.85. Bahrain’s 400 m star Salwa Eid Naser finished fourth in 22.90.
Paulino won the Slam, of course, at 24 points, followed by Whittaker (14), then Nickisha Pryce (JAM: 14) and Gbai fourth (12).
● Men/200 m: (long sprints)
Britain’s 400 m Olympic silver winner Matthew Hudson-Smith had the 400 m in hand after Saturday, but it was no contest in this race as Dominican star Alexander Ogando – fifth in the Olympic 200 m in Paris – flew around the turn, led into the straight and ran away in 20.13 (+0.8)
Jereem Richards (TTO), the 2017 Worlds 200 m bronzer, was the sole challenger in the straight and was a clear second in 20.34. Steven Gardiner (BAH), the Tokyo 400 m champ, got third in 20.49, with Hudson-Smith well back in fifth in 20.70.
Hudson-Smith won the Slam with 16 points, with Ogando second at 15 and Richards at 14 in third place.
● Men/1,500 m: (short distances)
It was Yared Nuguse’s 26th birthday on Sunday and he was in good position after his 1:45.36 third in the 800 m on Saturday.
Olympic 800 m silver winner Marco Arop (CAN) took the early lead, but then Olympic 1,500 m champ Cole Hocker of the U.S. took over, with Nuguse close and Arop hanging in. At the bell. World Indoor 800 m winner Josh Hoey (USA) took over and passed Hocker and Nuguse.
Arop shocked everyone with a huge move into the final turn, trying to steal the race, and led into the straight. But Hocker blew by as did 2023 World 1,500 m champ Josh Kerr (GBR), and Kerr had the fastest finish to win in 3:34.44, with Hocker at 3:34.51 and Hobbs Kessler of the U.S. coming up for third in 3:34.91.
Arop was fourth in 3:35.38, a lifetime best, and his courage paid off and he won the Slam with 17 points, with Kerr second in 16, then Hoey (12) and Hocker (11). Nuguse ended up sixth in 3:35.59, not the birthday present he was hoping for.
● Women/100 m: (short sprints)
Jefferson-Wooden, the Paris Olympic 100 m bronzer, came in with a win in the 200 m in hand, and the big favorite to win her third straight Slam.
It was no contest. She blasted out and was clearly in front by 40 m and pulled way to a brilliant victory in a blazing 10.73 with +1.4 m/s wind!
That’s not only a world leader in 2025, but moves her equal-10th all-time, and no. 5 all-time U.S. Wow! She’s now 18/100ths faster than everyone else in the world in 2025, an unheard-of margin.
American Tamari Davis was a clear second in 11.03, then Thelma Davies (LBR: 11.14) and Paris Olympic 200 m champ Gabby Thomas fourth at 11.14.
Jefferson-Wooden won the Slam with 24 points, then Davis with 14 points, Thomas with 13 and Dina Asher-Smith (GBR) at nine.
● Men/100 m: (short sprints)
What would Kenny Bednarek do? He came in as the only one to win all five of his races so far and has looked unbeatable.
Christian Coleman, the 2019 World 100 m champ, got his patented quick start, but Bednarek ran him down by 50 m and ran away with a clear win in 9.86 – equaling the world lead – with legal +0.8 m/s wind. And he was relaxed in the last 10 m!
Jamaica’s Bryan Levell ran strongly in lane two for second in 10.02, then Britain’s 2023 Worlds bronzer Zharnel Hughes was third 10.05 and Coleman in 10.12.
Bednarek won the Slam with 24 points, followed by Hughes (14) and Levell (12).
¶
With one Slam to go, only Bednarek and Jefferson-Wooden have won at all three stops and only Bednarek has won all six of his races!
In the “Racer of the Year” standings, with one Slam remaining, Bednarek leads with a perfect 72 points, to 66 for dos Santos and Arop third at 46.
Jefferson-Wooden has the women’s lead with 66 points, followed by Paulino (62) and McLaughlin-Levrone (60).
¶
Scoring in each event group (two races) is 12-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 and the placers in each group will win $100,000-50,000-30,000-25,000-20,000-15,000-12,500-10,000.
While famed as the site of the Penn Relays, Franklin Field does not get many other major events; it had the NCAA Championships last in 1976 and the Liberty Bell alternative meet to the 1980 Olympic Games was 45 years ago. So, on Saturday, all 11 events set stadium records, and on Sunday, five more!
The Grand Slam Track announce team had Citius Magazine founder Chris Chavez back in the second analyst chair, after Kyle Merber, the Grand Slam Track director of athletes and racing, subbed in on Saturday.
The final Slam of the circuit’s first year will be at UCLA’s Drake Stadium, now confirmed for two days (also down from three), on 28-29 June.
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