Gabby Thomas crowned Grand Slam Track champion with personal best 400m
Thomas' runner-up in the 400m on Saturday, combined with her 200m victory Friday, gave her the Grand Slam meet title for her long sprints group.
Olympic silver medalist Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain won the 400m in 48.67 seconds, the fastest time ever run before the month of July.
Thomas held off Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic, the Olympic 400m gold medalist, for runner-up in 49.14. Thomas took 54 hundredths off her personal best of 49.68 from 2019.
GRAND SLAM TRACK: Full Results | Broadcast Schedule
'I'm not sure I've ever been more tired in my life,' she said on the broadcast. '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.'
Thomas is now the seventh-fastest American in history in the 400m. She was already the second-fastest American in history in the 200m (PB 21.60).
Earlier, Olympic 800m gold medalist Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya won the 1500m over all of the Olympic 1500m medalists.
Wanyonyi, the joint-second-fastest 800m runner in history, ran 3:35.18 in the longer distance.
He overtook all three Olympic 1500m medalists on the last lap — first gold medalist Cole Hocker, followed in the final straight by silver medalist Josh Kerr and then bronze medalist Yared Nuguse.
Wanyonyi has a pedigree over the longer distance. He was the road mile world record holder for five months in 2024 (3:54.6).
The 1500m medalists can deliver payback to Wanyonyi on Sunday as they all return for the 800m on the last day of the meet (3 p.m. ET, Peacock).
Grand Slam Track is a new series of meets for sprinters, hurdlers and distance runners. Each athlete races in two different events over a three-day meet.
There are four Grand Slam meets — Kingston, followed by Miami (May 2-4), Philadelphia (May 30-June 1) and Los Angeles (June 27-29), all live on Peacock.
Athletes are divided into six event groups for each Slam: short sprints (racing the 100m and 200m), short hurdles (100mH and 100m or 110mH and 100m), long sprints (200m/400m), long hurdles (400mH/400m), short distance (800m/1500m) and long distance (3000m/5000m).
There are 24 men's 'Racers' and 24 women's 'Racers' who signed up for all four Grand Slams — four for each event group. For each individual Slam, men's and women's 'Challengers' fill out the rest of the fields for every eight-athlete event group. Racers who have to withdraw from meets are replaced by additional Challengers.
Athletes earn points based on their two results, which determine champions for each event group for every Slam. Points are distributed from first through eighth place in each race as follows: 12-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.
The winner of each Slam event group earns $100,000 in prize money. Eighth place gets $10,000.
One overall men's season champion and one overall women's season champion will be crowned at the end of the season.
Also Saturday, American Kenny Bednarek completed a sweep of the short sprints, adding the 200m to his 100m title from Friday. Bednarek, a two-time Olympic 200m silver medalist, clocked 20.07 seconds.
'Came out here and said I wanted to dominate,' he said. 'That's what I did.'
In the long sprints group, Brit Matthew Hudson-Smith won Saturday's 200m in 20.77 seconds after placing second in Friday's 400m behind American Chris Bailey. Bailey was fifth in the 200m, so Hudson-Smith is the Grand Slam champion.
American Dylan Beard, who gained fame last year for balancing track with working at Walmart, won the 110m hurdles in 13.29 to move closer to a possible $100,000 payday. Beard's short hurdles group finishes up with a flat 100m on Sunday.
American Tia Jones took the 100m hurdles in 12.63, upsetting the last two Olympic gold medalists — Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (third, 12.70) and Masai Russell (fifth, 12.78). That group also has a flat 100m on Sunday.
Nick Zaccardi,
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