McLaughlin-Levrone stands tall
American caps inaugural Grand Slam Track meet with runaway victory on breezy day
On an afternoon when a stiff homestretch breeze hindered athletes’ performances, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the U.S. capped the inaugural Grand Slam Track meet in Kingston, Jamaica, on Sunday with a runaway victory.
Competing in the 400-meter race of the women’s long hurdles event category, the 25-year-old McLaughlin-Levrone clocked 50.32 seconds to finish well ahead of Andrenette Knight of Jamaica, who placed second in 52.09, and Dalilah Muhammad of the U.S., who finished third in 52.21.
McLaughlin-Levrone’s performance came two days after she had won the 400 hurdles in a yearly world-leading time 52.76 while finishing nearly two seconds in front of second-place Muhammad. With each victory worth 12 points in the standings, McLaughlin-Levrone won the women’s long hurdles category with a perfect score of 24.
She was followed by Muhammad with 14 points and Knight with 13.
Her victory was worth $100,000 in prize money, while Muhamad was awarded $50,000 for finishing second and Knight received $30,000 for placing third.
The prize money breakdown for the fourth- through eighth-place finishers was $25,000, $20,000, $15,000, $12,500, and $10,000.
“Anything can happen so you just got to focus on yourself and focus in on the things you know how to do,” McLaughlin-Levrone said in an interview on the Peacock broadcast.
The versatile McLaughlin-Levrone was so dominant in her two races during the weekend that she was asked if she was contemplating competing in a different event category in any of the three remaining Grand Slam Track meets this season.
She said that she and her coach, Bobby Kersee, were “definitely” thinking about running in the long sprints category in the fourth — and final — Grand Slam Track meet at UCLA from June 27-29, as well as competing in the short hurdles category at Franklin Field in Philadelphia from May 30-June 1.
Athletes in the long sprints division compete in the 200 and 400 meters, with performers in the short hurdles category taking part in the 100 hurdles and the 100.
“I think this is just an opportunity to showcase more of my range, which I love to do,” McLaughlin-Levrone said in a sit-down interview with the Grand Slam Track trio of John Anderson, Sanya Richards-Ross, and Matthew Centrowitz. “I love switching events up. We’ll do the four, four hurdles. We might do the two four. We might do the 100 hurdles, 100 so it’s just a really great opportunity for track and field, and I’m happy to be part of it.”
The 35-year-old Muhammad, who handed McLaughlin-Levrone her last loss in the 400 hurdles when she set a then-world record of 52.16 in winning the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, was in the lead for the first 200 meters of the 400 on Sunday.
But Knight and McLaughlin-Levrone began to move past Muhammad as they proceeded through the second turn and McLaughlin-Levrone, the two-time defending Olympic champion on the 400 hurdles, had a commanding lead as she entered the home straightaway.
Although she ran smack into a robust headwind at that point in the race, she held her form well through the finish line while continuing to extend her lead.
“I felt like I was going backwards,” she said with a smile when Richards-Ross asked her about the stiff breeze. “I’m grateful. I’m grateful. It was a great experience just to be out here and to get it done. I’m happy with that.”
McLaughlin-Levrone was one of four athletes who won their respective races on Sunday to complete a sweep of their event categories during the inaugural three-day meet of the professional track league that was created by four-time Olympic sprint champion Michael Johnson.
The other athletes to sweep their event categories were Alison dos Santos of Brazil in the men’s long hurdles, Ejgayehu Taye of Ethiopia in the women’s long distance division, and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden of the U.S. in the women’s short sprints class.
Dos Santos, the two-time Olympic bronze medalist in the men’s 400 intermediate hurdles, won the 400 in 45.52 on Sunday after winning the intermediates in a yearly world-leading time of 47.61 on Friday.
His victory in the 400 did not come easily as he trailed Americans Chris Robinson and Caleb Dean when he entered the home straightaway and he did not take the lead until he edged past Robinson in the last two or three strides of the race.
Robinson finished second in a personal best of 45.54, followed by Dean in 45.68 and Roshawn Clarke of Jamaica in 45.73.
Taye won the women’s 5,000 in 14:54.88 on Sunday after winning the 3,000 in 8:28.42 on Friday.
As she did in the 3,000, Taye ran behind Agnes Ngetich of Kenya for most of the 5,000 before surging into the lead with 200 meters to go. But unlike Friday, the Kenyan was not able to make a run at the Ethiopian in the home straightaway and she finished a distant second in 14:59.80.
Tsige Gebreselama of Ethiopia placed third in 15:24.62, followed by Emily Infeld of the U.S. in 15:26.87.
Jefferson-Wooden won the women’s 200 in 23.46 seconds on Sunday after winning the 100 in 11.11 on Saturday.
While her winning time might have appeared to be very slow, it was run into a headwind of 4.7 meters per second and it came after she had won a hard-fought homestretch duel with Jenna Prandini of the U.S.
The favored Prandini was in the lead coming out of the turn, but Olympic 100 bronze medalist Jefferson-Wooden began to close in on her after that and she edged past Prandini with about 25 meters left in the race.
Prandini placed second in 23.56, followed by third-place Jacious Sears of the U.S. in 23.79 and fourth-place Kemba Nelson of Jamaica in 23.84.
“It’s crazy out there, y’all,” Jefferson-Wooden said when commenting on the headwind. “But all I did was just focus on what my coach said. Once again, go out there and rhythm, rhythm, rhythm, and that’s what I’ve been doing.”
The other athletes to win races on Sunday were Marco Arop of Canada in the men’s 800, Hagos Gebrhiwet of Ethiopia in the men’s 3,000, Sasha Zhoya of France in the 100 that was part of the men’s short hurdles category, and Danielle Williams of Jamaica in the 100 that was part of the women’s short hurdles division.
Arop had finished a distant sixth in the 1,500 on Saturday in a time of 3:39.65, but he won the 800 in 1:45.13 after having led the field through the first 200 meters and never trailing again.
He clocked 52.14 for the first 400 meters and an unofficial 1:19.7 for 600 when his closest competitors were Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya and Olympic fourth-place finisher Bryce Hoppel of the U.S. But Olympic silver medalist Arop increased his lead over both of them in the home straightaway as Wanyonyi placed second in 1:46.44 and Hoppel finished third in 1:47.02.
Neil Gourley of Great Britain finished fourth in 1:47.84 and he was followed by Olympic 1,500 champion Cole Hocker of the U.S. in 1:48.02 and Olympic 1,500 bronze medalist Yared Nuguse of the U.S. in 1:48.16.
Great Britain’s Josh Kerr, the Olympic silver medalist in the 1,500, finished eighth — and last — in 1:50.68 after placing fifth in the 1,500 on Saturday.
Wanyoni won the short distance title with 20 points as he had run a personal best of 3:35.18 to win the 1,500 on Saturday. Arop finished second in the standings with 15 points.
Like Arop in the short distance division, Gebrhiwet won the 3,000 on Sunday, but he finished second in the men’s long distance category because he had placed fourth in the 5,000 on Friday.
Ethiopian Telahun Bekele and Gebrhiwet had taken a sizeable lead over the remainder of the field after Bekele came through the first 800 meters in 2:03.90. But the pace slowed quite a bit after that and Gebrhiwet was well ahead of Bekele when he crossed the finish line in 7:51.55.
Bekele placed second in 8:00.68, followed by Grant Fisher of the U.S. in 8:03.85.
Because Fisher had won a very tactically-run 5,000 in 14:39.14 on Friday in a race in which Gebrhiwet placed fourth, he knew that he only needed to finish third in the 3,000 to win the long distance event title. Therefore, he made no attempt to go out with Gebrhiwet and Bekele before he finishing third after outkicking fourth-place Ronald Kwemoi of Kenya, who ran 8:04.12, and fifth-place Cooper Teare of the U.S., who timed 8:04.16.
Zhoya had finished second to Dylan Beard of the U.S. in the men’s 110-meter high hurdles on Saturday, but he won the short hurdles title when he took the 100 in 10.55 on Sunday while finishing ahead of second-place Cordell Tinch of the U.S. in 10.65 and third-place Beard in 10.67.
A similar scenario played out in the women’s short hurdles category as Danielle Williams of Jamaica won the 100 in 11.54 — while running into a breeze of 3.4 meters per second — after finishing second in the 100 hurdles in 12.70 on Saturday.
Ackera Nugent of Jamaica placed second in the 100 in 11.57 and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico finished third in 11.73 after getting off to one of her typical mediocre starts before closing with a rush.
Tia Jones of the U.S. had won the 100 hurdles in a yearly world-leading time of 12.63, but she finished five points behind Williams in the overall standings after placing sixth in the 100 in an eased up 12.26.
The next Grand Slam Track meet is scheduled to be held in Miramar, Florida, from May 2-4.