The inaugural Grand Slam Track event is set to debut in Kingston, Jamaica this weekend. This will mark the start of the track athletics outdoor season 2025.
Multiple Olympic and world champions will be in the fray on the Caribbean country’s National Stadium at Independence Park in an event which will run from 4-6 April.
The inaugural Grand Slam Track will take place over three days, with athletes racing twice, in a league featuring matchups between the best track runners. Kingston is the first stop of the four Grand Slams in 2025, with other races to take place in the US cities of Miami, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.
Grand Slam Track 2025: Stars To Watch
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is one of many athletes who have chosen to open the season in Kingston after skipping the indoor campaign. It will be an unusually early start to a year for the four-time Olympic gold medallist, who defended her women’s 400m hurdles title at Paris 2024 with another record. The world record holder has often preferred the 4x100m relays, the 100m hurdles, or the 400m flat events to jumpstart her season.
Marileidy Paulino, unbeaten in 2024 in 11 races, goes into the 400m race as the favourite to start her season on a high after a glorious Olympic year.
Bahrain’s Eid Naser, who is just fresh from running her third fastest 400m ever, a 48.94 seconds at the Felix Sanchez Classic in the Dominican Republic on 29 March, is another athlete to watch out.
Paris Olympics 2024 gold medalist in 200m Gabby Thomas, who recently got engaged to her fiancé Spencer McManes, will also kick-start her season in Kingston in the 400m.
Quincy Hall returns to the 400m men’s competition for the first time since his life-changing gold on the purple Olympic track in Paris.
GB’s Matthew Hudson-Smith, who took silver behind him, will be in contention too.
The 800m should be another key race to watch. Five men who made the podium at the last Olympics are set to line-up. The winner Kenya’s Wanyonyi and Canadian silver medallist Arop will start as favourites, against American’s Hocker, the 1500m reigning Olympic champion, plus 1500m world champ from 2023 Josh Kerr, and Yared Nuguse, who was third in Paris.
The Jamaican home duo of Ackeem Blake and Oblique Seville will face double Olympic 200m silver medallist Kenny Bednarek, and his American teammate Kerley, in the men’s 100m.
Prominent stars will also feature in the distances with 5000m Olympic bronze medallist Grant Fisher, Dominic Lobalu, the Refugee Olympic Team member who finished behind him in Paris are in the field but now competes as a Swiss runner. Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet, a Rio 2016 bronze medallist is also another contender.
Also Read: List Of Major Athletics Events In 2025
Grand Slam Track 2025 Kingston: Schedule
All timings are local to the event in Kingston, Jamaica which is observing Eastern Standard Time / EST (GMT -5).
Day 1, Friday, 4 April
- 17:42 – 200m (W)
- 17:54– 400m (M)
- 18:04 – 3000m (W)
- 18:21 – 800m (W)
- 18:34– 400m hurdles (M)
- 18:46 –400m hurdles (W)
- 18:56 –5000m (M)
- 19:21 – 100m (M)
Day 2, Saturday 5 April
- 17:42 – 110m hurdles(M)
- 17:56– 200m (M)
- 18:08 – 1500m (W)
- 18:25 – 100m hurdles (W)
- 18:38– 100m (W)
- 18:50 –1500m (M)
- 19:07 –200m (M)
- 19:21 – 400m (W)
Day 3, Sunday 6 April
- 14:42 – 100m hurdles (W)
- 14:54– 400m hurdles (M)
- 15:04 – 5000m (W)
- 15:29 – 100m hurdles (M)
- 15:39– 800m (M)
- 15:49– 3000m (M)
- 16:08 – 200m (W)
- 16:21 – 400m long hurdles (W)
