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NBC Sports
28-05-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
SYDNEY MCLAUGHLIN-LEVRONE AND GABBY THOMAS HEADLINE GRAND SLAM TRACK IN PHILADELPHIA LIVE ON PEACOCK THIS WEEKEND
Penultimate Event of Michael Johnson's New Track League Begins Exclusively on Peacock This Saturday, May 31, at 4 p.m. ET from Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pa. Live Competition Continues Sunday at 3 p.m. ET Multiple Olympic Medalists Expected to Compete This Weekend including Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas, Kenny Bednarek, and Cole Hocker STAMFORD, Conn. – May 28, 2025 – Two-time reigning Olympic 400m hurdles gold medalist and world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and three-time Paris Olympic gold medalist Gabby Thomas headline Grand Slam Track, the new and innovative track league founded by four-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson, from Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pa., this Saturday, May 31, at 4 p.m. ET exclusively on Peacock. The two-day event – called a 'Slam' – will continue Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on Peacock. This is the penultimate Slam of the league's inaugural season. This week's Slam is expected to feature an elite lineup of Olympians, including two-time Olympic 200m silver medalist Kenny Bednarek, Olympic 1500m gold medalist Cole Hocker, Paris Olympic 400m gold medalist Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic), Paris Olympic 1500m silver medalist Jess Hull (Australia), Paris Olympic 5000m/10,000m bronze medalist Grant Fisher, two-time Olympic 400m hurdles bronze medalist Alison dos Santos (Brazil), three-time world champion Christian Coleman, and more. Franklin Field is home to the iconic Penn Relays, the oldest and largest track & field competition in the U.S. that regularly attracts over 15,000 competitors per year. Constructed in 1895, Franklin Field remains the oldest still-operating college football stadium in the country and was home to the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles from 1958-1970. Founded by Johnson in 2024, Grand Slam Track prioritizes head-to-head competition over times, with a star-studded roster of 48 Racers competing against 48 Challengers. The athletes participate in one of the following event groups: short sprints (100m/200m), short hurdles (100H or 110H/100m), long sprints (200m/400m), long hurdles (400H/400m), short distance (800m/1500m), or long distance (3000m/5000m). All competitors' final placement scores are be determined by their combined finishing order between the two races, with the winner of each Slam event group taking home $100,000 in prize money, and the 8th place competitor earning $10,000. In the Racer of the Year standings, McLaughlin-Levrone tops the season-long leaderboard as the only unbeaten woman with 48 points thus far. Two-time Paris Olympic medalist Melissa Jefferson-Wooden trails her with 42 points. On the men's side, both Bednarek and dos Santos have 48 points, with Bednarek leading due to his higher dominance score (55.25 to 50.25). 1984 Olympic 1500m silver medalist Steve Cram will call the races alongside Olympians Carrie Tollefson and Anson Henry, with Radzi Chinyanganya and Paris Olympic heptathlete Taliyah Brooks serving as trackside reporter. The pre- and post-Slam shows will be hosted by John Anderson alongside four-time Olympic gold medalist and NBC Sports' Sanya Richards-Ross and CITIUS MAG founder Chris Chavez. Peacock is the exclusive U.S. streaming home of Grand Slam Track, presenting all four Slams of the inaugural 2025 season live. Future locations and dates include UCLA's Drake Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif. (June 28-29). NBC Sports will present numerous prestigious outdoor track & field events this season, including the Prefontaine Classic on July 5, USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships on July 31-Aug. 3 from historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., and the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan, from Sept. 13-21. How To Watch – Saturday, May 31-Sunday, June 1 (all times ET) 2025 NBC SPORTS GRAND SLAM TRACK SCHEDULE --NBC SPORTS--
Irish Times
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Ireland's relay stars part of an ‘overnight' success story stretching back to Ronnie Delany in the 1950s
I was taking the roof and doors off the Jeep Wrangler for the weekend when a neighbour not seen in a while cycled by. Always keen for the inside scoop on our athletes, he stopped in for a few minutes. Our conversation soon turned to this weekend's World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, China . 'Tell me, when did we suddenly become so good at the relays?' Assuming he meant the sprint relays, this demanded some gentle clarification, given the long history of World and European relay records Irish athletes have broken over the years. Including one set in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 1964 and another milestone of a record still standing after 40 years. 'Well, how much time have you got?' READ MORE Off the top of my head there was one place to begin. Long before Robert Prevost earned his mathematics degree in 1977 at Villanova University, Ronnie Delany was furthering his athletics reputation there at the famed Penn Relays in Philadelphia, the oldest and largest track and field competition in the US. In his sophomore year in 1956, Delany helped Villanova win three Penn Relays titles, running the anchor leg in both the sprint and distance medley. Later that year he was Olympic 1,500m champion. Delany won 10 Penn Relays titles in all. As a matter of fact, his last five races were all in the relay. In the winter of 1962, he was part of the Irish 4x800m quartet that toured the US indoor circuit. Having already broken the European 4x800m record in 1961, they won three of their five races. Delany then retired in the summer of 1962, due to injury, on the same day he announced his engagement to fiancée Joan. Also part of that 4x800m quartet was Noel Carroll, then in his first year at Villanova. Born and raised in the seaside village of Annagassan in Louth, he dropped out of school at 13 and held a series of jobs before beginning his running career in the army. His relay exploits with Delany first caught the eye of Villanova's legendary track coach James F Elliott, better known as Jumbo. Former Olympic champion Ronnie Delany at a reception for Eamonn Coghlan after he won the 5,000m at the World Championships in Helsinki in 1983. Photograph: Independent NewsIn 1964, Carroll anchored the Villanova team that broke the world 4x800m record at the Coliseum Relays in Los Angeles, running a 1:46.9 split. Carroll always considered himself a tactical half-miler, with The New York Times once describing his mid-race machinations as 'like a scene-shifter at the Abbey Theatre'. That must have been some sight, his 6ft 3in hulking frame tearing around the Coliseum. Then he comes back the next day and says he has an even better idea, that we'd go for the mile-relay record — John O'Shea Always the embodiment of clean living and physical fitness, Carroll achieved many great things in his life, which was sadly cut short in 1998, at the age of 56. As well as co-founding the Dublin Marathon, he also played an instrumental role in one of the best Irish relay performances of all time, also known as the GOAL 4xmile record attempt, staged in Belfield 40 years ago this August. This idea was dreamed up by John O'Shea, who wasn't long back from a trip to Ethiopia that spring of 1985, where the famine which made global headlines the previous Christmas was still ravaging the country. Scenes from Ethiopia had pressed Bob Geldof into putting on a benefit concert at Wembley Stadium called Live Aid. [ 'I don't know if prioritise is the word, I just do both'; Chris O'Donnell on Ireland's ambitions at the World Athletics Relays Opens in new window ] [ Sonia O'Sullivan: Sometimes you need to go off the beaten track to find that timeless run of your life Opens in new window ] O'Shea had set up his own relief agency, GOAL, in 1977. It was a lunchtime visit to Trinity College in July 1985, where Carroll was finishing up a training run, that inspired his fundraising effort. 'Noel thought it was an okay idea, but said he'd look at the record books,' O'Shea told The Irish Times in 2020. 'I think he wanted it to be a half-mile record attempt; he was always so obsessed with the half-mile. Then he comes back the next day and says he has an even better idea, that we'd go for the mile-relay record, which he'd seen had recently been set by New Zealand.' O'Shea already had his cast in mind: Eamonn Coghlan, the then world indoor mile record holder, with his 3:49.78, set in 1983; Ray Flynn, the then Irish mile record holder with his 3:49.77, set in 1982; Marcus O'Sullivan, the 23-year-old from Cork who had run a 3:52.64 mile that July; and Frank O'Mara from Limerick, also fast rising up the mile ranks and who would run 3:51.06 a year later. Ray Flynn saw the team home as Ireland set a world record for the 4xmile relay. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho The only obstacle was Coghlan's state of fitness. A freak back injury prevented him from properly training for months and he told O'Shea there was no way he could run. Coghlan took up the story from there: 'Then John comes back again and tells me to f**k off, he's got John Treacy to run instead. Then Noel Carroll came on the phone... Noel is a bit more diplomatic, saying it wouldn't be the same if the record was broken and I wasn't on the team. So I go back to John O'Shea the next day and said 'okay, I'll do it'.' After Coghlan clocked his 4:00.20, he passed off to O'Sullivan, who dropped in a 3:55.30. O'Mara then ran a 3:56.60 and Flynn brought them home with his 3:56.98. They finished in 15:49.08 – over 10 seconds inside the New Zealand mark. The 4xmile may be a rarely run distance. However, in 2022, an All-Star Oregon Nike team, which included reigning Olympic 1,500m champion Cole Hocker, attempted to break Ireland's world record and finished three seconds short, in 15:52.04. In 2004, an Irish women's 4x1,500m team that included Sonia O'Sullivan and underage star Maria Lynch, ran a European record of 17:19.09 which also still stands. That same year, Ireland won its first championship medal in a sprint relay, the men's 4x400m snatching a World Indoor bronze. This was aided somewhat by the fact the US team dropped the baton and the Bahamian team fell over. These are now unprecedented times in the sprint relays – the mixed 4x400m winning European gold last June, the women's 4x400m just a fraction of a second away from Olympic bronze in Paris – but don't forget our illustrious relay history from long before that. Just in case anyone is asking.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Pittsburgh Panthers Basketball Lands Two Major Backcourt Transfers
Earlier this week, the Pittsburgh Panthers women's basketball team got commitments from two potential backcourt stars. On Monday, Florida State transfer guard Carla Viegas officially signed with Pitt. The next day, the Panthers got an official commitment out of the portal from Coppin State transfer Angel Jones. Carla Viegas Florida State Seminoles guard Carla Viegas (13). Credit: A 5-foot, 9-inch guard/forward, Viegas has been with Florida State for the last two seasons. She started 17 contests last season and averaged 18 minutes per game. Viegas shot .418 from the field while averaging 6 points, just under a rebound, and a half assist and steal per game. Advertisement A long-range marksman, Viegas shot .432 from 3-point range last year and .398 for her career with the Seminoles. She was also a standout for the under-18 Spanish National Team before joining Florida State. In 2023, Viegas helped Spain to a third-place finish at the FIBA U18 European championships with an average of over 9 points per game and nearly 45% from 3-point range. Viegas also played three years for CAB Estepona of the Spanish League. She hit 138 3-point field goals over those three seasons, connecting at a 51% clip. Angel Jones Coppin State Eagles guard Angel Jones (11) drives to the basket against Arizona State. Credit: A 5-foot and 4-inch guard, Jones began her collegiate career at Siena as a freshman. She'd transfer to Coppin State, where she'd play the last two years. Advertisement In her three seasons, Jones has averaged nearly 31 minutes and 10.6 points per game. She's added career averages of 2.6 assists, 4 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per outing. The 2024-25 campaign was Jones' best so far. She was second on the Coppin State Eagles with 15.2 points while averaging 3.5 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game. Those numbers earned her 1st Team All-MEAC and HBCU accolades. Angel Jones and Carla Viegas join the Panthers to fortify a backcourt that also added five-star recruit Nylah Wilson out of the IMG Academy. Pittsburgh also added prized transfer center Fatima Diakhate out of Georgia. Related: Devin Nugent, Norrah Lemongo Lead Pitt Panthers Stars At Penn Relays Related: Pitt Panthers Lineman Branson Taylor Picked In The Sixth Round Of NFL Draft Related: Pitt Panthers Tight End Gavin Bartholomew Chosen In The Sixth Round Of NFL Draft Related: Pitt Panthers Wideout Konata Mumpfield Selected In Seventh Round Of NFL Draft Related: Three Pitt Panthers Get Their NFL Opportunity As Undrafted Rookies
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Andy Pages makes leaping catch to start double play
South Jersey athletes prepare for Penn Relays after successful indoor track and field season The Winslow Township girls track and field team is getting ready to compete in the 129th Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia this week. Older competitors are helping their teammates prepare for the big stage. 2:43 Now Playing Paused Ad Playing
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Lourdes Gurriel Jr.'s two-run homer (5)
South Jersey athletes prepare for Penn Relays after successful indoor track and field season The Winslow Township girls track and field team is getting ready to compete in the 129th Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia this week. Older competitors are helping their teammates prepare for the big stage. 2:43 Now Playing Paused Ad Playing
