GST Kingston Day 2 Delivers: Emmanuel Wanyonyi Takes Down the 1500 Men; Gabby Thomas Runs 49.14 to Win $100K

KINGSTON, Jamaica – When Michael Johnson and his team dreamed up the format of Grand Slam Track, the men’s 1500 meters at National Stadium is exactly what they had in mind. What could Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi – the 20-year-old Olympic champion, tied for second-fastest man in history, and one of the greatest middle distance talents the world has ever seen – do against some of the world’s best milers in an unrabbitted 1500-meter race?

On Saturday night, we got our answer: he would beat them all.

Wanyonyi strolled into a race featuring the entire Olympic podium from one of the fiercest, most competitive events in all of track & field, and acted as if he owned it. With 40 meters to go, as Wanyonyi was opening up his barrel-chested stride, he took a quick glace to his left. The Olympic champion, Cole Hocker, was already gone. So too was the world champion, Josh Kerr. His last rival standing, Olympic bronze medalist Yared Nuguse, was grimacing badly, desperately striving to keep his form from breaking down.

Seeing his rival suffering, he began motioning his left arm as if to say, This is all you’ve got? before gapping the field for good and winning in a three-second personal best of 3:35.18. His winning margin of .18 over Nuguse (3:35.36) and Hocker (3:35.52) doesn’t look like much on paper. But the finish-line photo was instructive. There was Wanyonyi, leaning back, already well into his celebration. And there was everyone else, desperately striving for the minor places.

Wanyonyi made it look easy at the end (Kevin Morris photo)

This race almost certainly does not happen without Grand Slam Track. Or at least, not this soon into Wanyonyi’s career. Before this race, Wanyonyi had run two 1500s during his professional career. One was a 3:43.19 in the B heat of a meet in Nairobi in March 2022, when Wanyonyi was all of 17 years old. The other is the race he ran three weeks ago to tune up for Grand Slam:  a hand-timed 3:38.1 on a dirt track at more than 6,500 feet of elevation in his training base of Kapsabet. 

Wanyonyi’s training made him an intriguing candidate to move up. He has been known to run as many as 80 miles during his heaviest training weeks, and it’s not uncommon for him to hang with some of the marathoners in his 2 Running Club team – a group that includes the two fastest marathoners of 2024 in Sabasian Sawe (2:02:05) and Benson Kipruto (2:02:16).

Yet Wanyonyi had never run the 1500 against a top-class international field. But by signing up as a Challenger for Grand Slam Track, he was forced to: the league’s format requires middle-distance runners to double in the 800 and 1500. The result was an electrifying race between some of track’s biggest heavyweights and an early signature moment for the league.

Grand Slam Track also took a step in the right direction by giving away free seats in the bleachers to boost the crowd after Day 1’s attendance was abysmal. The attendance was a big improvement on Day 2. There were still lots of empty seats, but the crowd was noticeably bigger.

Full analysis of this race and everything else from day 2 below.

Race video (If you can’t see it, get the VPN we use)

LetsRun video analysis of Day 2:

The Race: Hocker Leads Early But Loses Control

We’ve seen Hocker, Nuguse, and Kerr race each other in two global 1500 finals in the last two years, but this race still felt like uncharted territory – both of those races had Jakob Ingebrigtsen pushing the pace as a de facto rabbit. And Ingebrigtsen, who won the World Indoor title in Nanjing two weeks ago, was not in Kingston.

Before the race, Hocker said he would back his kick over the 1:41 800m men Wanyonyi, Marco Arop, and Bryce Hoppel if the race came down to a fast final 200 after a slow start.

“They’re going to be threats at that point,” Hocker said. “But I still think I’m the fastest.”

But he didn’t rule out trying to increase the tempo to shake off the 800 specialists early, and that is what he tried to do on Saturday, seizing the lead immediately and towing the field through 800 in 2:00.10 before Nuguse took the lead and upped the tempo with 600 remaining.

Until that point, there had been little battling for position among the runners, but Hocker would proceed to squander his good spot behind Nuguse with 500 to run, finding himself shuffled back to 5th and gapped with 250 to go. Hocker would rally – his final 200 of 25.44 was fastest in the field – but he had too much distance to make up and too many bodies to navigate over the final 100 meters.

Instead, it was Wanyonyi who played Hocker’s role from the Olympic final. Nuguse and Kerr fought for the lead on the final bend, Wanyonyi hung back, sitting on the rail until the final straight when he moved outside and blew past both of them. He wound up covering his final 800 in 1:49.46, his last lap in 51.58, and his final 300 meters in an unreal 38.37.

How fast is 38.37? It’s faster than the final 300m split by every gold medalist in the last six global 1500m finals. Granted, 1500m finals are run much faster than 3:35 these days. But even if you go back to the more tactical era of the 1500, Wanyonyi’s close fits right in with the best milers of the last 15 years. That is insane given it is still early April.

Final 300m splits of every 1500m global champion, 2009-24, plus Wanyonyi in Kingston (data from this amazing thread from LRC messageboard poster Raph)

Quick Take: Wanyonyi was absolutely sensational and is showing himself to be a unicorn talent

The most basic track-fan logic is to move an incredible athlete up one event and assume they would dominate in a tactical race. Emmanuel Wanyonyi is a 1:41 guy. None of the 1500 guys have that sort of speed. How could he possibly lose?

Well there were two other 1:41 guys in this 1500 tonight and they were nowhere to be seen on the last lap. Marco Arop and Bryce Hoppel both ran 3:39. Not as easy as it looks.

Unless you’re Emmanuel Wanyonyi. The 2:00 opening 800 may have taken a toll on Arop and Hoppel’s ability to kick, but it did nothing to Wanyonyi. He said later he would have felt comfortable at a faster pace, too.

“To me, the pace is slow [tonight],” Wanyonyi said.

That’s because Wanyonyi is a freak talent. Already an Olympic 800 champ at the age of 20, he had no problem handling some absolute studs in the 1500 tonight.

Before the hype train gets completely off the rails, it’s worth remembering that it is April 5. The World Championships are still more than five months away. A lot can change in that span, and the guys Wanyonyi beat tonight should be a lot fitter by then.

But so will Wanyonyi. Could he be a factor in a 3:28 or 3:29 race at Worlds? We will have to wait a few years to find out. Wanyonyi said he did not want to attempt the 800/1500 double this year (and the schedule is not conducive). But he didn’t rule out moving up eventually.

“Maybe next year,” Wanyonyi said. “But this year, I need to run the 800 meters…I like to run the 1500. In future, maybe I can run the 1500 meters better.”

Let’s hope we can get Wanyonyi in at least one more elite 1500 before the end of 2025, preferably with Ingebrigtsen as well. This event is already the most fascinating in all of track, and Wanyonyi makes it even more so.

We should also note that the Tshepiso Masalela of Botswana, the 7th placer in the Olympic 800 last year, ran 3:30.71 for 1500m last night in South Africa and he had never run under 3:42 until this year.

Quick Take: Nuguse: “[Wanyonyi] showed up and I was like, Ah crap”

Nuguse thought he played things pretty well tonight. He had the lead with 100m to go and even as Kerr was challenging him on the outside, he felt he had a little extra juice to respond to him. But while Nuguse had enough to hold off Kerr, his speed in the home straight was no match for Wanyonyi.

“I felt Josh,” Nuguse said. “He was like right there on me. I was like, come on, there’s a little bit more, let’s just go through it. Then [Wanyonyi] showed up and I was like, Ah crap. He’s a lot faster than I am. I tried to reach for another gear, didn’t really have it.”

That said, Nuguse likes to judge races not just by the outcome, but by whether he had fun. And he had a lot of fun tonight.

“In a Diamond League, you kind of know exactly what you’re getting into every time. Versus this race, it feels like anything could happen. And anything did happen.”

Quick Take: Cole Hocker’s last 200 was terrific, but he lost this race on the first half of the last lap

Hocker is known for his deadly final 200 meters, but he was not in position to use it tonight. He was 3rd with 350 to go but let Wanyonyi around him, then found himself gapped on the back straight as Kerr, Nuguse, Wanyonyi, and Neil Gourley accelerated away from him. Hocker rallied well to run the fastest final 200 of the race, but he was too far back to challenge for the win.

So what happened? Did Hocker fall asleep for the first half of the bell lap? Did he think the leaders would come back? Was he concerned that ripping it too hard down the back straight would leave him with nothing left for the last 200?

Hocker didn’t have an explanation.

“It was weird,” Hocker said. “It was an interesting way the race developed. I’m happy with how I fought back.”

Hocker is known for his kick, but tonight was a reminder that it is not unbeatable. Nuguse has beaten him before and took the first of many2025 matchups against Hocker.

Hocker also gave Wanyonyi a lot of respect — he is the reason why Hocker grabbed the lead and kept it honest early.

“Me and my coach talked about the race, and he was the top guy to watch for,” Hocker said. “Lo and behold, he came through at the end there.”

The lesson: moving forward, Hocker needs to run a lot faster than 3:35 if he is to drop Emmanuel Wanyonyi.

Additional quick takes, race analysis, race videos, and results by Robert Johnson and Joseph Carroll

Men’s 200: Kung Fu Kenny dominates the weekend 

Race video (If you can’t see it, get the VPN we use)

There were four event groups that concluded on day two of Grand Slam Kingston and the only one where the same person won both events was the men’s short sprints, where Kenny Bednarek set himself up well winning his off event, the 100, on Friday. Tonight he came back to win his specialty the 200 by a whopping .30 in 20.07 over Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes (20.37). His toughest competition on day two ended up being Olympic bronze medalist Fred Kerley, who after running poorly yesterday, ran a quick first turn but faltered the second half of the race, falling to third place in 20.39 — much better than his 10.30 for 7th in the 100 last night. 

Bednarek also has a leg up on the Racer of the Year race, that also gives an additional $100,000 for the racer that has the most points over the four slams. This is one of the big draws for track’s brightest stars, the chance to win $500,000 over 8 races.   

Women’s 1500: Welteji turns the tables on Hiltz and wins $100k

Yesterday, Nikki Hiltz and Jessica Hull ran big PBs of 1:58.23 and Hull 1:58.58 but the big winner tonight was the second placer in the 800 from last night, Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji.

Welteji, the 2023 world outdoor and 2025 world indoor silver medallist in the 1500 who was an agonizing 0.14 away from the medal stand in Paris, may not have PR’d last night but she won $100k tonight. She used a 59.31 final lap and ran down Hull, who did most of the work in this one, to grab the 1500/800 series win comfortably in 4:04.51 as Suan Ejore moved up to 2nd (4:05.10) with Hiltz third in 4:05.39, with Hull fading to fourth in 4:05.48. 

Hiltz was pleased to win $50,000 for second and believes that they (Hiltz is a biological female that prefers they/them pronouns) have continued to improve after back-to-back US titles.

“I got really good in 2023,” Hiltz said. “I got a little bit better in 2024. I’m hoping to just keep getting better. I was 7th at the Olympics. The next step is the medals. I want to be competing with the people that have the medals, and I want one for my own. It’s a really good sign to be fit in April. I think it’s right where I need to be.”

Slam concept hits home in women’s long sprints – Paulino loses first 400 since 2023 

The last race certainly was worth the wait. We got to see the Olympic 200m champ, Gabby Thomas, face off against the Olympic 400m champ Marileidy Paulino. This is the type of fantasy matchup GST makes possible. Thank you.

In the end, neither of them won. Olympic 400m silver medalist Salwa Eid Naser dominated — she was clear of the field with 100 to go and won in a ridiculous April time of 48.67 (after running 48.94 in March). It certainly was an upset as Paulino had not lost a 400 since July 2023 at the Silesia DL.

Behind Naser, there was a terrific battle for second between Thomas and Paulino. Paulino had the slight edge but rigged up in the final 50 meters, giving way for Thomas to take second in 49.14 to Paulino’s 49.35. The battle between Thomas and Paulino didn’t matter for the $100k — Thomas won that as the scoring system guarantees that one of the two event winners will always win the 100k as long as they are in the top 5 in the 2nd event. But without GST, we wouldn’t have seen Gabby Thomas going all-out in an open 400 in April.

Grand Slam Track’s technology and presentation needs to improve immediately

Heading into the series, we were wondering if Grand Slam Track would have some sort of innovative way to let the viewers know who won the 2-event series for $100k. We assumed coming in the answer would be yes, and were actually afraid it might be distracting like showing you live scores mid-race. Instead, the answer was most emphatically no.

At a minimum, when the second race ends, the timing company should be put up the winner of the race with their time and then their series points. Then put up second in the race with their points, etc. Do them one by one. When they are all up on the screen, have the one with the most points turn to gold (or maybe green) and a cash bag appears next to their name. If a timing company can live score a cross country race, they could easily do this. GST dropped the ball on this and it takes time getting used to a new format. Should we be celebrating Eid Naser’s 48.67 or Thomas winning the $100k?

Go to their timing website and it’s entirely cumbersome to see who won each race and the series. How about listing all of the events in a single table with links to the race results and series? This technology exists — in fact the media results table is formatted exactly like this. Share it with the public.

Additionally, there was lots of downtime on the broadcast on day two which made for a very unpleasant viewing experience for US viewers watching on Peacock. In between the first and second race of the program there was a short piece of analysis on the men’s short hurdles, followed by a period of about three minutes of complete silence that was filled by some shots of the 1500 runners warming up on the track, and then everything abruptly cut to the men’s 200. The same thing happened repeatedly throughout the night. What was happening is the broadcast was going to commercial for stations that offer commercials. But they was no acknowledgment of that on Peacock and no “commercial break” notice at the top of the screen.

GST is spending over $3 million per meet on prize money to attract some of the best athletes in the world.  Let the fans both on the computers and those watching live know who won two-event series right away. Let them see the lap splits. We know Michael Johnson doesn’t want to emphasize time, but splits are like a box score for team sports — absolutely essential. Have something to fill the airtime on Peacock when cable TV goes to commercial. You have about 10 different commentators at your disposal, in between races is the time to use them. Matthew Centrowitz’s analysis was great. Give us more of that.

Despite all the dead time, for some races, the runners would be getting into the blocks when the broadcast resumed and we had little idea as to what to expect, who was the favorite, etc. Plus there has been little training of the broadcasters about the 2-race format. It’s a mathematical certainty that the winner of the $100k will be one of the event winners (the one who finished higher in their “off” event) as long as they finish 5th or higher in the other event.

Women’s Short Hurdles 

Men’s Short Hurdles: Dylan Beard who works at Walmart, Wins

Dylan Beard has a job at Wal-Mart and wore a Costco jersey tonight. Jon Gault in Jamaica said he had one of the best interviews of the night (embedded below). If he could win the $100k, it would be huge for him financially.

Beard balances his hurdle career with a job at Walmart and won tonight’s race while racing in a specially-designed Sam’s Club uniform

Women’s 100

Men’s Long Sprints

Talk about Grand Slam Track on our world-famous fan forum / messageboard.

• Official Grand Slam Track Day 2 Thread
• WANYONI TAKES DOWN KERR, HOCKER, NUGUSE AT 1500m
• I think Wanyonyi wins the 1500m today
• Grant Fisher Should be Ashamed of Himself
• Fastest 1,500m last lap for a 3:35 race
• We need to slow down on the Wanyonyi hype train

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