Big pay day for winners
Bednarek, Thomas, Welteji, and Hudson-Smith earn $100,000 for winning Grand Slam Track event categories
The uniqueness of Grand Slam Track was on full display on Saturday when Kenny Bednarek and Gabby Thomas of the U.S., Diribe Wetelji of Ethiopia, and Matthew Hudson-Smith of Great Britain were each awarded a record $100,000 in prize money for winning their respective event categories on the second day of the three-day meet in Kingston, Jamaica.
Bednarek won the men’s short sprints category with a perfect score of 24 points after winning the 200 in 20.07 seconds on Saturday following a first-place effort of 10.07 in the 100 on Friday.
Thomas took the women’s short sprints category with 20 points after her second-place — and personal-best — effort of 49.14 in the 400 on Saturday followed a winning time of 22.62 in the 200 on Friday.
Welteji and Hudson-Smith also totaled 20 points while winning the women’s short distance and the men’s long sprints categories, respectively.
Welteji won the 1,500 in 4:04.51 on Saturday after placing second in the 800 in 1:58.29 on Friday.
Hudson-Smith won the 200 in 20.77 on Saturday following a second-place time of 44.65 in the 400 on Friday.
The points breakdown for each event was 12 points for first place, 8 for second, and 6 for third, with the fourth- through eighth-place finishers earning points on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis.
“I got to pick up the ultimate prize by the end of the day,” Bednarek said in an interview on Peacock. “Everybody’s getting paid and that’s what we need in this sport, no matter how fast or slow we are. You know, no matter the competition, all athletes should get paid, because we put a lot of blood, sweat, and heart [into] the sport.”
In addition to the $100,000 payout for the winner of each race group, the runner-up was awarded $50,000, with the breakdown for the third- through eighth-place finishers being $30,000, $25,000, $20,000, $15,000, $12,500, and $10,000.
Bednarek had come from behind to win the 100 on Friday, but he had a solid lead over Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain, Fred Kerley of the U.S., and Oblique Seville of Jamaica as he came off the turn in the 200 on Saturday.
He then extended his advantage during the remainder of the race as his 20.07 clocking left him well ahead of second-place Hughes in 20.37 and third-place Kerley in 20.39.
Seville, who finished second in the 100 in 10.08 on Friday, finished fifth in the 200 in 20.43.
“I feel great, 100k richer,” Bednarek said. “I came out here and said I wanted to dominate. That’s what I did and I had fun.”
Thomas, who won the Olympic title in the women’s 200 in Paris, had dominated that race on Friday when she finished .31 seconds in front of second-place Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic. But her performance was even better on Saturday as she bettered her previous best of 49.68 in the 400 while finishing second behind Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain, whose 48.67 clocking was the fastest time ever run before the month of July.
Paulino, the defending Olympic and World champion, finished third in 49.35, followed by American Alexis Holmes in 50.12.
Although Thomas had a four-point lead over Paulino in the standings after her victory in the 200, Paulino could have overtaken her in the standings if she had won the 400 and Thomas had finished third or lower in the race.
And that appeared to be a distinct possibility before the contest began as Naser and Paulino have personal bests of 48.14 and 48.17, respectively. In addition, Jamaica’s Nickisha Pryce was also in the field after running 48.57 last year.
Holmes, Naser, Pryce, and Paulino were running 1-2-3-4 after the first 200 meters of the race, but Paulino is known for her strong finish and she began to move up around the second curve.
However, Olympic silver medalist Naser ran faster than anyone during that segment of the race and she had a sizeable lead entering the home straightaway while on her way to victory. Thomas, meanwhile, had begun to close in on Paulino as they came off the turn.
She caught Paulino with about 30 meters to go and then edged away from her during the remainder of the race as her 49.14 clocking moved her to seventh on all-time U.S. performer list.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever been more tired than that,” she said. “Going into that, I knew that was going to be one of the hardest races of my life, just because of the talent in the field.”
She then added that the closing stages of the race were very taxing.
“Oh my gosh, I was thinking I really lost my form there. But it really came down to whatever, whatever means necessary.”
Wetelji’s time of 4:04.51 in the 1,500 was more than 11 seconds off her personal best, but her only concern was winning following her second-place finish to American Nikki Hiltz in the 800 on Friday.
After Olympic silver medalist Jessica Hull of Australia had led the field through a slow opening 400 meters, she picked up the pace considerably during the second lap and came through 800 meters in an unofficial 2:17.7.
Hull, Welteji, Susan Ejore of Kenya, and Hiltz were running 1-2-3-4 at the start of the bell lap. But the Ethiopian was leading Hull, Ejore, and Hiltz in that order heading into the final turn and she expanded her advantage during the home straightaway as she finished seven or eight meters ahead of second-place Ejore in 4:05.10.
Hiltz placed third in 4:05.39 and Hull was fourth in 4:05.48.
Hudson-Smith was the Olympic silver medalist in the men’s 400 last year, but World indoor champion Christopher Bailey of the U.S. had defeated him in that event on Friday when the American ran 44.34 to Hudson-Smith’s 44.65.
However, Hudson-Smith ended up finishing four points ahead of second-place Bailey in the overall standings when he won the long sprints category 200 in 20.77 and Bailey placed fifth in 20.93.
Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago finished second in 20.81, followed by Deandre Watkin of Jamaica in 20.91 and Vernon Norwood of the U.S. in 20.92.
In the four other events held on Saturday, Olympic 800-meter champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya was an upset winner in the men’s 1,500, while Americans Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, Tia Jones, and Dylan Beard won the women’s 100, women’s 100 hurdles, and men’s 110 high hurdles, respectively.
Wanyonyi’s 1:41.11 best in the 800 ties him for second on the all-time performer list, but many people expected him to be running for a fifth-place finish in the 1,500 as the field included the top three finishers from the Olympic Games, as well as the runner-up in the European indoor championships last month. However, the early pace was not particularly fast and that allowed Wanyonyi to bide his time in fourth place when Olympic 1,500 champion Cole Hocker of the U.S. came through 800 meters in 2:00.10, followed by bronze medalist Yared Nuguse of the U.S. and silver medalist Josh Kerr of Great Britain.
Nuguse, who had briefly held the world indoor record in the mile at 3:46.63 in February, and Kerr were running in first and second place at the start of the bell lap, but Wanyonyi was looking very relaxed in third place as the American came through 1,200 meters in 2:56.19.
Nuguse continued to pick up the pace down the backstretch, around the curve, and into the home straightaway. But he and Kerr were unable to drop Wanyonyi and the Kenyan moved into the lead with about 40 meters left in the race while motioning to Nuguse with his left arm as he moved past him.
Wanyonyi’s winning time of 3:35.18 crushed his previous best of 3:43.19 from 2022 and left him ahead of Nuguse at 3:35.36, Hocker at 3:35.52, Neil Gourley of Great Britain at 3:35.60, and Kerr at 3:35.61.
Nuguse said it “was a really fun race” afterward before adding that he and his fellow 1,500 specialists needed to “get them back” when talking about Wanyonyi and his three fellow 800 runners who will be viewed as having the collective upper hand over their 1,500 brethren when the two-lap race is contested this afternoon.
Jefferson-Wooden was regarded as the favorite in the women’s 100 after winning the bronze medal in that event in the Olympic Games in Paris last year and she won the event by a comfortable margin with an 11.11 clocking that came while running into a breeze of 0.6 meters per second.
Jenna Prandini finished second in 11.23, followed by fellow American Jacious Sears in 11.25.
Although Jefferson-Wooden was awarded 12 points for her victory, while Prandini earned eight for her runner-up finish, Prandini will be considered one of the favorites when the 200 is run this afternoon and she could therefore win the overall title in the short sprints category and the $100,000 in prize money that goes with it.
Jones defeated a heavyweight field in winning the 100 hurdles in a yearly world-leading time of 12.63 seconds as two-time World champion Danielle Williams of Jamaica finished second in 12.70, followed by Olympic bronze medalist Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico in 12.70, Ackera Nugent of Jamaica in 12.75, and Olympic champion Masai Russell of the U.S. in 12.78.
Jones and Danisha Cartwright of the Bahamas battled for the lead during the first four or five flights of hurdles, but Jones had taken charge of the race by the sixth set of barriers and she was never seriously challenged for the victory in the race that was run into a breeze of 1.4 meters per second.
She was understandably excited with her win as it came in her second final of the outdoor season and in only her third race since a superb indoor season in the 60 hurdles had been cut short by an injury last year.
Jones had tied the then-world record of 7.67 in the 60 hurdles in her semifinal of the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships last year before winning the final in 7.68. But an injury prevented her from competing in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, and her only meet of the outdoor season saw her run 12.90 in the 100 hurdles in a qualifying heat of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in late June before withdrawing from her semifinal.
She then opened her outdoor season with a winning wind-aided time of 12.57 in the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays a week before her victory on Saturday.
Beard clocked 13.29 in winning the men’s 110-meter high hurdles in Kingston while defeating a field that included Sasha Zhoya of France, who placed second in 13.34, Olympic silver medalist Daniel Roberts of the U.S., who was third in 13.35, and Olympic finalist Freddie Crittenden of the U.S., who was fourth in 13.36.
Beard had finished sixth in the men’s 60-meter high hurdles in the USATF Indoor Championships in February before he had run 13.35 in winning his outdoor season opener in the Yellow Jacket Invitational on March 21 and a yearly world-leading time of 13.21 in the Terry Long Florida State Relays a week later.
Peacock will broadcast the final day of the inaugural Grand Slam Track meet at 3 p.m., Eastern, Daylight Time, today.