Grand Slam Track Kingston 2025: Your Complete Sprints Preview, Matchups & Storylines to Watch

By Chris Chavez

This weekend, the world of track and field enters a new and exciting chapter.

The first-ever Grand Slam Track meet kicks off in Kingston, Jamaica (April 4–6), welcoming a glittering roster of Olympic and world medalists—and marking a seismic shift in how the sport could be seen, celebrated and sold.

After months of announcing a slew of high-profile athlete signings, the headliners are among the greatest athletes of all time: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the Olympic and world record-breaking force in the 400m hurdles; Gabby Thomas and Cole Hocker, fresh off their golden runs in Paris. The full Olympic podium from the Paris Games in the men’s 1500m, men’s 400m and the women’s 100m hurdles. Alongside them all will be deep fields, stacked with Challengers hungry for a shot—not just at glory, but at one of the richest paydays in track.

The prize? $100,000 per event category champion. A total prize purse of $12.6 million across the series. It’s the biggest single bet ever on changing the way professional track works.

Dreamt up by four-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson, Grand Slam Track is a new league designed to inject consistency, competition, and visibility into elite track and field—a sport that too often fades between Olympic cycles. (Watch below or listen to our most recent interview with Johnson here.)

A quick refresher on how the format of the league works (longer version here from last June):

• Four meets.

• Ninety-six athletes per meet (48 “Racers” and 48 “Challengers”).

• Six performance categories, each combining two events.

• One overall winner per category, based on cumulative points.

For example, in the “Short Sprints” category, athletes will race both the 100m and 200m. In the “Long Distance,” it’s the 3000m and 5000m. Other categories include “Long Sprints,” “Long Hurdles,” and “Short Distance.”

At each Slam, Racers—the core athletes contracted to the league—face off against up-and-coming Challengers, who are looking to earn their way into other Slams this season, and ultimately the 2026 roster. Every result counts, with points assigned per event and only one athlete per category emerging as that meet’s Slam Champion.

The circuit continues with upcoming meets in Miami (May 2–4), Philadelphia (May 30–June 1), and Los Angeles (June 27–29). 

But first, it all begins in Kingston—a city synonymous with sprinting greatness and the perfect setting for a league looking to make history.

How To Watch

For each of the four Slams, Friday’s action will be streamed on Peacock. Saturday and Sunday’s races will be broadcast on The CW and streamed on Peacock.

Here are the broadcast windows for this weekend. Note: The time featured is Eastern Daylight Time, which is one hour ahead of Kingston, Jamaica (which is currently on Eastern Standard Time, since they do not observe daylight saving time):

• Friday, April 4 (6:00- 9:00 pm EDT) - Streaming on Peacock

• Saturday, April 5 (6:00-9:00 pm EDT) - Broadcast on The CW, Streaming on Peacock

• Sunday, April 6 (3:00-6:00 pm EDT) - Broadcast on The CW, Streaming on Peacock

We’ve created a handy, shareable schedule that you can bookmark or screenshot on Instagram here. A live results link will be found here.

CITIUS MAG LIVE FROM KINGSTON

CITIUS MAG’s crew – Chris Chavez, Eric Jenkins, Aisha Praught-Leer and Anderson Emerole – will bring you four shows from Kingston. 

We’ll have a preview show on Thursday, where we’ll discuss the new league format, the upcoming race weekend and share some predictions. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday – similar to those who have tuned in for our daily World Championship and Olympics coverage – we’ll aim to bring your our post-race analysis by unpacking results, insights from interviews with athletes and more from each day of competition.

To catch it all, be sure to be subscribed to The CITIUS MAG YouTube channel. We’ll also have all our shows available to stream or download on The CITIUS MAG Podcast feed on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you can listen to it on-the-go the next morning or on the run.

Here’s your comprehensive preview of what to watch for this weekend:

Women’s Short Sprints

(100m on Saturday at 7:38 P.M. | 200m on Sunday at 5:08 P.M.)

Racers: Brittany Brown, Daryll Neita, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden

Challengers: Alana Reid, Jacious Sears, Tamara Clark, Jodean Williams, Kemba Nelson

Last September, 200m Olympic bronze medalist Brittany Brown walked away with $85,000 for just 33.13s of racing by winning the 200m and finishing second in the 100m at Athlos NYC. The two performances were less than two hours apart and this time she has an opportunity to win even more money with almost 22 hours of recovery time. As someone who has medaled in the 200m at the Olympics and World Championships and was a finalist in the 100m at the 2023 World Championships, she has the best resume of the bunch across both events. Her strongest challenge may come from 100m Olympic bronze medalist Melissa Jefferson-Woodson, who brings intrigue to the second day of action since she has not raced a 200m since July 2023 and her personal best of 22.46 is from her college days at Coastal Carolina. 

(A reminder of how the tiebreaker for the Slam Champion works—in the event Brown wins the 100 and Jefferson takes second and then they swap places in the 200m—Per Grand Slam Track’s official rules: “The competitor with the highest individual finishing placement would win the Slam. If there is still a tie, the lowest combined time of both races for each competitor will be used to determine the winner.”)

But it’ll hardly be an American duel, as there’s plenty of talent to go around in this category. Especially exciting for the Jamaican fans will be the first glimpse of how Alana Reid holds her own individually against global finalists.

Men’s Short Sprints

(100m on Friday at 8:21 P.M. | 200m on Saturday at 8:07 P.M.)

Racers: Kenny Bednarek, Fred Kerley, Oblique Seville, Zharnel Hughes

Challengers: Courtney Lindsey, Ackeem Blake, Terrence Jones, Joseph Fahnbulleh

2024’s results would point to Kenny Bednarek being the man to watch in this one, as the only one in the field to make the Olympic final in the 100m (7th) and 200m (2nd). Fred Kerley presents a familiar foe.  Although the two have never publicly traded barbs, there is enough head-to-head history between them to suggest they’ll both want to beat the other. 

Kerley holds the advantage against Bednarek (5–1) over 100m. Bednarek’s got Kerley’s number (7–3) over 200m. Friday’s 100m race could dictate just how close Kerley will have to be in the 200m standings to try and steal the Slam title.

Oblique Seville has the credentials to win or finish high in the 100m and has proven his commitment to being a force in the league by opening up with a 20.53 for 200m on March 22nd. His compatriot Ackeem Blake has already run 10.06 for 100m and 20.20 for 200m this outdoor season. The Jamaicans won’t want Americans to sweep the short sprints on their home soil.

Women’s Long Sprints

(200m on Friday at 6:42 P.M. | 400m on Saturday at 8:21 P.M.)

Racers: Gabby Thomas, Nickisha Pryce, Alexis Holmes, Marileidy Paulino, Salwa Eid Naser

Challengers: Dina Asher-Smith, Talitha Diggs, Stacey Ann Williams

Over the past few months, I’ve designated athletes with the versatility to bounce between event groups as “unicorns” and we’re getting our first example of that as Gabby Thomas (who is primarily expected to be a short sprints Racer) is moving up to the long sprints in Jamaica. It’s even more exciting because we’ll get the 200m Olympic champion racing the 400m Olympic champion over their respective signature events.

In the months since Paris, it’s felt like Thomas has been everywhere: late-night talk shows, courtside at sporting events and plastered on billboards. That’s how you break through the track bubble and into mainstream sports culture. But judging from her Instagram stories, she’s also stayed close to the track in training and busting the rust by running in a 4x100m and 4x400m relay at the Texas Relays. Thomas has opened up fast before with a 10.88 (wind-aided)/22.08 double at the Texas Relays last year, so don’t expect the post-Olympic lull to be too much of a factor for her.

The 200m will come first, so Thomas will defend her marquee event against three other Racers who are primarily 400m stars, plus 2019 200m World champion Dina Asher-Smith (who did some over-distance work with a 36.87 300m and a 52.31 400m in February, indoors). But it’s mostly 400m Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino and Olympic silver medalist Salwa Eid-Naser that Thomas will have to worry about.

Paulino has not lost a 400m race since July 2023, so she’ll be a force on Day 2. She quietly opened up her 2025 outdoor campaign with a 23.28 in Mérida, Mexico. Not much to interpret from that result so we’ll see just how fit she is in early April.

Eid-Naser is the one who fired the first big shot of this group over the weekend. She ran 48.94 for 400m to win the Felix Sanchez Classic in the Dominican Republic, which is the fastest performance ever in March. Last year, she only broke 49.00 once when she earned the silver medal at the Paris Olympics in 48.53. Overall, it was a time only five women eclipsed in all of 2024. Oh! And she came back an hour later to run a personal best of 22.45 for 200m.

Naser is 0–8 in her career against Paulino. But there has never been a better chance for her to snap a losing streak and potentially shake-up how we view the 400m beyond Grand Slam in 2025.

Men’s Long Sprints

(400m on Friday at 6:54 P.M. | 200m on Saturday at 6:56 P.M.)

Racers: Muzala Samukonga, Matthew Hudson-Smith, Jereem Richards

Challengers: Busang Collen Kebinatshipi, Vernon Norwood, Chris Bailey, Deandre Watkin, Zandrion Barnes

A rematch of the epic Paris Olympic final will have to wait until Miami as Olympic champion and long sprints Racer Quincy Hall has scratched from the first meet. But this group still includes five of the top six from the final at the Games.

Matthew Hudson-Smith clocked his 200m (20.34) and 400m (43.44) personal bests last year but they’re still not as flashy as Jereem Richards’s 200m (19.80) and 400m (43.78) PBs. However, the beauty of racing is you throw those stats away on race day and see where they’re at. Richards having World medals in both events makes him a slight favorite over Hudson-Smith of the Racers. But with no results on his record since September, you have to wonder what Muzala Samukonga has been working on to run his first 200m since 2022 and follow up a strong 2024 campaign that saw him go 43.74.

24-year-old Chris Bailey enters as a Challenger with momentum on his side as the World Indoor 400m champion. But of all the guys he faced across three rounds in Nanjing, only one of them was even an Olympic semi-finalist as many of the top stars in this event opted to skip the indoor championship. This will be his biggest test since taking sixth at the Games.

And then there’s Vernon Norwood—a beloved fan favorite in the American track (and especially CITIUS MAG) community. He was very vocal about his snub from getting signed to the league as a Racer but earned his spot in Kingston as a Challenger. Last weekend in Baton Rouge, he was simply tuning up with a 20.38 at LSU—his fastest wind-legal 200m since 2021. He’s got a ski mask packed for Kingston ready to steal some money from Racers.

Women’s Short Hurdles

(100mH on Saturday at 7:25 P.M. | 100m on Sunday at 3:42 P.M.)

Racers: Ackera Nugent, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, Masai Russell, Cyréna Samba-Mayela

Challengers: Danielle Williams, Amber Hughes, Denisha Cartwright, Nia Ali

The women’s 100m hurdlers do not duck each other, so it’s only natural we’re getting a rematch of the Paris Olympic medalists. but this weekend may come down to who has the fastest flat 100m. It’s been fun asking each of these athletes who they think will be the fastest because, in most cases, they’ve picked themselves. This has been one of the most intriguing parts of this event group and we’ll get more data points on how the rest of the Slams could shake out from this first one.

Olympic champion Masai Russell appeared on The CITIUS MAG Podcast last fall and picked herself as the 100m favorite of the group. (She ran a wind-aided 11.16 at the Texas Relays this past weekend). Though she put together an undefeated indoor campaign, the edge here may go to Ackera Nugent (2024’s fastest 100m hurdler with a 12.24 Jamaican national record) since she’s already proven some 100m prowess with her own respectable 11.09 personal best from May 2021.

Men’s Short Hurdles

(110mH on Saturday at 6:42 P.M. | 100m on Sunday at 4:29 P.M.)

Racers: Freddie Crittenden, Sasha Zhoya, Daniel Roberts

Challengers: Orlando Bennett, Omar McLeod, Cordell Tinch, Eric Edwards Jr., Dylan Beard

Similarly, on the men’s side, the $100,000 and Slam title may come down to who can run the best flat 100m on Sunday.

Their PRs from slowest to fastest are as follows:

• Crittenden – 10.78 (Sept. 2020) | Last raced one in 2020

• Tinch – 10.70 (April 2023) | Last raced one in April 2023

• Edwards Jr. – 10.55 (March 2022) | Last raced one in April 2022

• Bennett – 10.54 (March 2023) | Last raced one in June 2023

• Roberts – 10.45 (May 2021) | Last raced one in May 2021

• Beard – 10.44 (May 2023) | Last raced one last weekend! (10.52 in Florida)

• Zhoya – 10.41 (June 2019) | Last raced one in June 2021

• McLeod – 9.99 (April 2016) | Last raced one in May 2024

It’s wide-open! Sasha Zhoya has major upside. Omar McLeod has the best personal best by far but it’s been nearly a decade since he ran it—months before becoming the Olympic champion in Rio. It was historic because he became the first man in history to run under 10s for the 100m and sub-13s for the 110m hurdles in his career. He only ran a season’s best of 13.22 for the 110m hurdles last year and missed the Olympic team. If this were 2016, he’d be a sure bet in this event group. Zhoya may have the edge since still in his prime across both events at 22 years old.

Note: Racer Devon Allen will miss this Slam due to injury.

Women’s Long Hurdles

(400mH on Friday at 7:46 P.M. | 400m on Sunday at 5:21 P.M.)

Racers: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Rushell Clayton, Jasmine Jones

Challengers: Shiann Salmon, Cathelijn Peeters, Andrenette Knight, Dalilah Muhammad, Cassandra Tate

It will be very, very, very difficult to take down Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in either of these events. Frankly, the best bet for someone to win the women’s long hurdles Slam title at any of the four meets will be if the 400m hurdles world record holder and two-time Olympic champion decides to contest the long sprints group at one of the events. She was the first star signed to the league and now she’s ready to silence the critics who said she didn’t race enough.

The most interesting part about McLaughlin-Levrone in Kingston will be: How fast will she go in April?

The last time she raced a hurdle race this early was in 2021 when she did the 100m hurdles in a then-personal best of 13.03 at a low-key meet in Arizona before running 51.16 for 400m two weeks later. She has never run a 400m hurdles race this early in her season.

For reference on her outdoor openers since her college days:

Year: 400 | 400m hurdles

• 2018: 50.07 on March 30th | 53.60 on April 27th

• 2019: 50.78 on May 18th | 54.14 on May 11th

• 2021: 51.16 on April 16th | 52.83 on June 6th

• 2022: No 400m | 51.61 on June 5th

• 2023: 49.71 on June 9th | No 400m hurdles

• 2024: 48.75 on June 9th | 52.70 on May 31st

Since working with Bobby Kersee, she’s opened up her season later. But if she can find some semblance of her previous opening form, she’ll still be heavily favored across both events.

The next-most intriguing athlete will be how Jasmine Jones follows up a breakout 2024. A year ago at this time, she was coming off the 60m hurdles title and few people would’ve seen a season with four personal bests (a progression from opening the year with a 56.17 personal best and getting down to 52.29) and a fourth-place finish at the Olympic Games. She has never run an open 400m.

Back in October, she told our very own Anderson Emerole that she believes she could run “something with a 4 in the beginning.”

Note: Racer Shamier Little will miss this Slam due to injury.

Men’s Long Hurdles

(400mH on Friday at 7:34 P.M. | 400m on Sunday at 3:54 P.M.)

Racers: Clément Ducos, Alison Dos Santos, Caleb Dean, Roshawn Clarke

Challengers: Malik James-King, CJ Allen, Chris Robinson, Assinie Wilson

You’d think the quick edge in this group would go to two-time Olympic bronze medalist Alison Dos Santos but this event is shaping up to be a preview of where the men’s 400m hurdles could go over the next few years. For four years, it’s been epic to see Dos Santos clash with Rai Benjamin and Karsten Warholm (two guys with 400m skill that would’ve made them great Racers, but who opted not to sign with the league). Those guys are still in their prime, but Grand Slam could give us a preview of the next guy to break the Big Three.

Dos Santos has a very respectable 44.54 personal best but 20-year-old Roshawn Clarke (who people forget was fourth at the 2023 World Championships) is also right there with a 44.98 personal best. They’re the only two guys on paper who have broken 45s..

Caleb Dean is someone who has tremendous upside in 2025. He may not have much of the shine because he has yet to compete at a global championships for Team USA but he’s coming and could prove himself on the Slam stage. (For what it’s worth, he told The CITIUS MAG Podcast he ran 399 meters in a 45 second test when he first arrived at Texas Tech.)

What event are you looking forward to the most? Got a bold prediction that you want to get off your chest? Drop us an email with your thoughts on the inaugural edition of Grand Slam Track. 

Be sure to follow along with all of CITIUS MAG’s coverage across Instagram, X, Bluesky, Threads. We’ll have our pre-race show on Thursday and “After The Final Lap” shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday that you can watch on our YouTube. We’ll also have those available for you to listen in podcast form to take on-the-go via the CITIUS MAG Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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