This weekend’s Grand Slam Track stop in Philadelphia may be one day shorter, but it will have some extra Canadian content.
In addition to series regular Marco Arop, who runs the 800 and 1,500 metres, sprinters Aaron Brown and Andre De Grasse will compete as challengers in the professional track league’s men’s short sprints group at Philadelphia’s Franklin Field beginning on Saturday at 4 p.m ET.
The two Canadian 4x100m relay teammates will line up against one another in Saturday’s 200m (5:07p.m. ET) and Sunday’s 100m (5:22 p.m. ET), an opportunity Brown says he always savours.
“It’s always great to race with [Andre]. I always get up for it,” Brown said. “You know, I’m always excited to run regardless, but anytime he’s in the race, you know there’s a little added extra motivation, so it’s gonna be fun.”
Brown is anticipating “a lot of friendly banter” among the competitors, since the field includes a pair of his training partners, Americans Kenny Bednarek and Christian Coleman.
Grand Slam Track Philadelphia will stream live on CBCSports.ca and on CBC Gem beginning on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET, continuing on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET. For a full broadcast schedule of athletics events this season, click here.
Bednarek is a racer – meaning he competes at every Grand Slam – and so far, ‘Kung Fu Kenny’ has been nearly unstoppable. Bednarek has won Slam titles at both the Kingston, Jamaica and Miami events.
Coleman joins Brown and De Grasse as challengers in Philadelphia, which are athletes invited on a per-Slam basis. Extra challenger spots opened up due to racers Oblique Seville (injury) and Fred Kerley (suspension) missing this meet.
Rounding out the field is racer Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain, and challengers Bryan Levell of Jamaica, American Christian Miller, and Nigeria’s Udodi Onwuzurike.
Philadelphia marks De Grasse’s second Slam competition. The Markham, Ont., native ran to a sixth-place finish at the Miami stop earlier this month, after placing eighth in the 100m and fourth in the 200m.
Canada’s most decorated Olympic sprinter also talks about why he wants to compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
This is Brown’s first Slam competition, but the 32-year-old from Toronto has been keeping a keen eye on the fledgling track league – and he likes what he’s been seeing. That includes the format, because it not only allows fans to see athletes race more than once at a meet, Brown says it means that when they do race, there’s a lot more on the line.
“It gives the fans incentive to want to come back and watch again,” he says. “You know when you have athletes in the event, you don’t want to just have them on the track once and then that’s it.”
The two-race format creates a need to keep fans up to speed with the points system, and Brown believes the league does a good job in presenting that information in the broadcast. He says it also creates a narrative that heightens the drama around the races.
“It’s not just going out there and racing for no reason, they’re actually trying to run for a big prize purse. After the first day it’s like ‘OK who has what point total, all right what do they need in order to win, where are they gonna finish?” Brown says. “For so long all that mattered was how fast are you going to run, and if they didn’t hit record-breaking speeds, people would be like ‘oh it wasn’t a good race.’
“But this gets it back to racing head-to-head and competing, which is what the essence of the sport.”
Condensed schedule
Brown also gives Grand Slam Track top marks for taking constructive criticism and not being afraid to make changes during the season.
“So far it feels very athlete focused and I also like how they adapt and listen to feedback,” he says.
Some of that feedback was on the length of the meet. Originally scheduled to begin on Friday and held over three days, league commissioner Michael Johnson announced on May 15 that the Philadelphia Slam would begin on Saturday and wrap up on Sunday.
What can we do over the season to make @GrandSlamTrack better?
“A lot of people are saying that three days might be too much, so they shortened it to two for Philly,” Brown said. “You know that they’re open to making changes on the fly and being in its infancy, they know that they just want to create the best product and I think they’re doing a good job and on the right path.”
The move to a two-day event did result in at least one significant change for the long distance groups. The three-day competition window had allowed for a day of rest for the athletes between their 3,000m and 5,000m events, but now they will compete in a single 3,000m race in Philadelphia.
That change also comes with an altered prize pool, with long distance Slam champions taking home $50,000 US instead of the $100,000 previously up for grabs.
Four-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson is the man behind the new professional track league.
The final stop of the Grand Slam Track season is in Los Angeles from June 27-29.
All Grand Slam Track events will be streamed live on CBCSports.ca and on CBC Gem. For a full broadcast schedule of athletics events this season, click here.