A huge weekend for rising sprinter
Jefferson-Wooden's 10.73 clocking in 100 in Grand Slam Track meet on Sunday follows 21.99 effort in 200 on Saturday
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden of the U.S. put a huge exclamation point on a superb weekend when she won the women’s 100 meters in 10.73 seconds in the Grand Slam Track meet in Philadelphia on Sunday.
The 24-year-old Jefferson-Wooden had dipped under 22 seconds in the 200 for the first time in her career on Saturday when she won the half-lap race in 21.99 seconds while defeating Olympic champion Gabby Thomas. But her 10.73 effort in the 100 at Franklin Field on Sunday was a statistically superior performance, for it slashed seven hundredths of a second off her personal best of 10.80 that she had set in finishing second to training partner Sha’Carri Richardson in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials last year and it also moved her into a tie for 10th on the all-time performer list while making her the fifth-fastest American ever.
“It means everything,” Jefferson-Wooden said when Grand Slam Track’s Taliyah Brooks asked her what her performance meant to her. “I’ve been working so hard for this. And I’m learning so many new things about myself. The way I go about training. The way I go about staying disciplined, even when I’m not feeling my best. And this is all coming together.
“And I’m so happy that I was able to get a new PB, wind legal this time. So it’s time go back home… and get ready for the next one.”
Jefferson-Wooden had run 10.75 in winning the 100 in the second Grand Slam meet of the season in Miramar, Florida, on May 2, but a wind reading of 2.4 meters per second was over the maximum of 2.0 allowed for record purposes.
The wind reading for Sunday’s race was 1.4 meters per second and she took advantage of it by beating everyone out of the blocks and then leaving the other seven women in the field behind as she finished a whopping three tenths of a second in front of runner-up Tamari Davis, who ran 11.03.
Thelma Davies of Liberia placed third in 11.14, with Thomas and Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith being credited with times 11.16 while finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.
Jefferson-Wooden’s dominance was evident in the splits for the race on the meet website as she was three hundredths of a second ahead of Davis after the first 10 meters before leading her by .12 seconds at 50 meters and then adding another .18 seconds to her advantage during the second half of the contest.
In addition to her personal bests, Jefferson-Wooden’s victories gave her the women’s short sprints event category title for the third time this season to bring her prize money total to $300,000.
“I’m so, so, so, so, so, so happy,” Jefferson-Wooden said when Grand Slam Track’s Sanya Richards-Ross asked her how happy she was to have signed with the first-year professional track league that is the brain-child of Michael Johnson, the GOAT of the men’s 400. “I feel like it’s the perfect set-up for the year getting ready for the World championships and things like that.
“Like I said before, I get two quality races and then I get to go back in the lab and work on the things I need to fix, and come back out there and see if I can improve on those things. And so far, it’s been working for me.”
While Olympic 100 bronze medalist Jefferson-Wooden has won the women’s 100 meters in each of the first three Grand Slam meets and finished second, third, and first, respectively, in the 200s, compatriot Kenny Bednarek has swept the men’s 100 and 200 in the first three competitions.
He ran 19.95 in winning the 200 by more than half a second on Saturday before capping the meet on Sunday with a personal best of 9.86 that was tied for the fastest time in the world this year and left him well in front of second-place Bryan Levell of Jamaica, who ran 10.02.
Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain finished third in 10.05, followed by Christian Coleman of the U.S. in 10.12 and Andre De Grasse of Canada in 10.15.
The typically fast-starting Coleman was in first place after the first 20 meters of the race, but Bednarek had moved to the fore by 30 meters and the two-time Olympic 200 silver medalist spent the remainder of the race using his smooth, powerful, and relaxed stride to increase the distance between himself and his fellow competitors.
Coleman was in second place through 60 meters, but Levell had passed him by 70 meters and Hughes had overtaken him by 90.
“It was amazing, I’m just happy to be here,” Bednarek when asked about his third double victory of the season. “I came out to perform and that’s what I did, so I’m just happy.”
Jefferson-Wooden and Bednarek were two of 11 athletes who won races on Sunday.
Diribe Welteji of Ethiopia, Josh Kerr of Great Britain, and Nico Young of the U.S. won the three middle- or long-distance events as Welteji timed 1:58.94 in the women’s 800, 2023 World champion Kerr clocked 3:34.44 in the men’s 1,500, and Young ran 8:01.03 in a men’s 3,000 that was run at a very slow pace for much of the race.
Diribe’s victory in the 800 came a day after she had won the 1,500 in 3:58.04 after outkicking Jessica Hull of Australia.
Mary Moraa of Kenya led the field through the first 200 of the 800 in 27.95 seconds, but Addy Wiley of the U.S. had moved into first place shortly before she completed the first lap in 57.46. However, 2023 World champion Moraa had re-taken the lead heading down the backstretch and she was in front when she came by 600 meters in 1:28.38.
Welteji, who had trailed Moraa and Wiley at that juncture, surged into the lead about 20 meters later and she never trailed again, although Olympic 1,500 bronze medalist Georgia Hunter Bell of Great Britain gave her a very strong challenge in the home straightaway before finishing five hundredths of a second behind her in 1:58.99.
Olympic 1,500 silver medalist Hull placed third in 1:59.63, followed by compatriot Abbey Caldwell in 2:00.57 and Moraa in 2:00.92.
Welteji’s two victories gave her the overall title in the women’s short distance category for the second time this season.
Kerr won his second consecutive Grand Slam race in the 1,500 after he edged past Olympic champion Cole Hocker of the U.S. in the final few strides of the contest.
Hocker had outkicked Kerr for the gold medal in Paris, but he finished just behind him on Sunday as his 3:34.51 clocking left him half a second ahead of Olympic fifth-place finisher Hobbs Kessler of the U.S. in 3:34.91.
Olympic 800 silver medalist Marco Arop of Canada finished fourth in a personal best of 3:35.38, and he was followed by World indoor 800 champion Josh Hoey in 3:35.45 and Olympic 1,500 bronze medalist Yared Nuguse in 3:35.59.
Arop won the short distance title after having won the 800 in 1:43.38 on Saturday.
Hocker led the field through the first 400 in 56.50 seconds, but the pace slowed after that as he clocked 1:55.98 for 800 meters and Hoey was in front in 2:40.39 when he started the bell lap.
Hoey, Hocker, Nuguse, Kessler, Arop, and Kerr were running in that order with 300 meters to go, but Arop, Hoey, and Nuguse were running 1-2-3 at 1,300 meters.
Arop was still in the lead with 100 meters to go, but Hocker soon went by him, and Kerr then began to make up ground on Hocker before passing him.
Kerr ran his final 200 in 25.86 and his last 300 in 39.23.
Young was making his first appearance in a Grand Slam meet this season on Sunday and he won $50,000 in prize money after kicking past Ky Robinson of Australia in the last 30 or so meters of the 3,000.
The 3,000 and 5,000 had been part of the long distance event category in the first two Grand Slam meets of the season, but league organizers had dropped the longer race from the program for the meet in Philadelphia.
With the 5,000 out of the equation, it seem logical to think that the men’s 3,000 might be a relatively quick affair, but a fast race never materialized.
Some of that might have been attributed to the fact that Grant Fisher of the U.S. pulled out of the race after feeling something that he did like while warming up. However, Fisher had been very willing to let the early tempo lag during the first two Grand Slam meets.
With the world indoor record-holder in the 3,000 and 5,000 out of the contest, Ronald Kwemoi of Kenya led the field through the first kilometer in 2:46.81 and Robinson had taken the lead just before he passed two kilometers in 5:40.10.
The World indoor championship bronze medalist was still in the lead with a lap to go, but the other six runners in the race were not far behind him.
Robinson still had the lead with 100 meters left in the race, but Andrew Coscoran of Ireland and Young were close behind him and Young soon passed him, as did American Sam Gilman with a late rush.
Gilman, who had placed fourth in the 3,000 in the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Nanjing, China, in March, timed 8:01.70, followed by Robinson in 8:01.92, Coscoran in 8:02.17, and Graham Blanks of the U.S. in 8:03.22.
Young had some impressive late-race splits as he covered the last 200 in 25.61, the final 400 in 53.74, and the last 800 in 1:51.33.
The other six events contested on Sunday were the 400-meter races of the men’s and women’s long hurdles category, the 200-meter races of the long sprints, and the 100-meter races of the short hurdles.
Trevor Bassitt of the U.S. won the men’s 400 in 45.47 seconds after outdueling compatriot Chris Robinson and Brazilian Alison dos Santos in the homestretch.
Bassitt, who had run 48.25 to finish second to two-time Olympic bronze medalist dos Santos in the 400 intermediate hurdles on Saturday, had been in fifth place during the first 200 of the 400. But he was locked in a tight race with dos Santos, Caleb Dean of the U.S., and Robinson with 100 meters left.
Although Dean faded in the homestretch, Bassist did not separate himself from Robinson and dos Santos until the final 25 or so meters of the race and he ended up winning the long hurdles title when Robinson, who had been third in the intermediates, edged dos Santos, 45.62 to 45.63, for second place.
Dean finished fourth in 46.01, followed by Assinie Wilson of Jamaica in 46.24.
While Bassitt’s victory was considered an upset, the 2022 World championship bronze medalist in the intermediate hurdles had won a silver medal in the 400 in the 2022 World indoor championships.
Lina Nielsen of Great Britain won the women’s 400 in 52.60, but Jasmine Jones of the U.S. won the long hurdles title when she finished second in 52.73 after having placed second in the 400 hurdles in 54.65 on Saturday.
Jamaican Andrenette Knight placed third in the 400 in 52.87 and she was followed by compatriot Rushell Clayton in 53.17 and American Dalilah Muhammad in 53.29.
Olympic silver medalist Anna Cockrell of the U.S. had won the 400 hurdles in 54.04, but she finished a point behind Jones in the long hurdles standings after she placed sixth in the 400 in 53.35.
Olympic 400 champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic capped off a two-victory weekend by winning the women’s 200 in 22.46 following her 49.17 clocking in the 400 on Saturday.
Paulino and Jessika Gbai of Cote d’Ivoire were tied for first place when they came through the first 100 meters in 11.56, but Paulino, as she so often does in the 400, ran the second half of the race significantly faster than any of her competitors.
Isabella Whittaker of the U.S. finished second in 22.82 after being in fifth place after the first 100, and she was followed by Gbai in 22.85, Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain in 22.90, and Nickisha Pryce of Jamaica in 22.96.
Paulino’s compatriot, Alexander Ogando, won the men’s 200 in 20.13 after pulling away from Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago in the home straightaway.
Richards, who ran 20.34 on Sunday, and Ogando had both been credited with times of 19.86 on May 2 while finishing 1-2 in the second Grand Slam meet of the season in Miramar, Florida. But that race had been run a day before the 400. The 200 in Philadelphia came a day after they had run the 400.
Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas placed third in the 200 in 20.49 on Sunday, and he was followed by Muzala Samukanga of Zambia in 20.56 and Matthew Hudson-Smith of Great Britain in 20.70.
Hudson-Smith edged Ogando, 16-15, for his second long sprints title of the season after he had won the 400 in 44.51 and Ogando had placed sixth in 45.87.
Like Paulino in the long sprints, Ackera Nugent of Jamaica had a two-victory weekend as she won the women’s 100 in 11.11 on Sunday after winning the 100 hurdles in 12.44 on Saturday.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the U.S., the two-time defending Olympic champion in the 400 hurdles, placed second in the 100 in 11.21, and she was followed by Ditaji Kambundgi of Switzerland in 11.41, Danielle Williams of Jamaica in 11.44, and Tonea Marshall of the U.S. in 11.48.
McLaughlin-Levrone had won the long hurdles titles in the first two Grand Slam meets, but she had wanted to test herself in the short hurdles category in Philadelphia and she had finished second to Nugent in the overall standings after placing fifth in the 100 hurdles in 12.70.
It was Nugent’s second consecutive short hurdles title.
Trey Cunningham of the U.S. won the men’s 100 in 10.36 while running into a breeze of 1.9 meters per second, and he was followed by compatriot Jamal Britt in 10.50, Lorenzo Simonelli of Italy in 10.52, and Americans Cordell Tinch and Eric Edwards Jr. in 10.57 and 10.90, respectively.
Britt edged Cunningham, 20-18, for the short hurdles title as he won the 110 high hurdles in 13.08 on Saturday and Cunningham placed third in 13.18.
The fourth — and final — Grand Slam Track meet of the season is scheduled to be held at UCLA’s Drake Stadium from June 28-29.