Seville and Pryce join Grand Slam Track
Jamaican sprinters Oblique Seville and Nickisha Pryce are the latest athletes to join the roster for the highly anticipated Grand Slam Track, the new global platform for professional track and field events launched earlier this year by four-time US Olympic champion Michael Johnson. Seville and Pryce, who will represent Jamaica at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, have joined fellow Jamaicans Ackera Nugent, Rushell Clayton, and Roshawn Clarke in the prestigious four-stop series.
The event will also feature international stars, such as Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Fred Kerley, Kenny Bednarek, Alison Dos Santos, and Marileidy Paulino, among others.
The Grand Slam Track series will kick off in Kingston, Jamaica, in April 2025, followed by events in Miami, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.
Seville, 23, who trains at the Racers Track Club under Glen Mills, was expected to medal at the Paris Olympics in August but finished eighth. A top sprinter for Jamaica, Seville boasts a personal best of 9.81 seconds in the 100m. Meanwhile, 23-year-old Pryce, the 2024 NCAA champion and Jamaican 400m record holder with a time of 48.57 seconds, was unable to progress past the Olympic semi-finals due to illness, a major disappointment.
Forty-eight athletes will compete as “Grand Slam Track Racers,” while another 48 will be classified as ‘Grand Slam Track Challengers” and participate in individual events for a predetermined fee. Challengers will be selected based on factors like recent performances and exciting matchups.
Grand Slam Track will offer a total of US$12.6 million in prize money across the series, in addition to base compensation and appearance fees. All participants will compete twice over the three-day tournament, and all events will follow World Athletics rules. Top scores will count toward rankings and standards.
Racers and challengers will compete in one of several categories, including short sprints (100m/200m), short hurdles (100H or 110H/100m), long sprints (200m/400m), long hurdles (400H/400m), middle distance (800m/1500m), or long distance (3000m/5000m). The winner of each category will receive US$100,000 in prize money, while the eighth-place finisher will earn US$10,000.
The Kingston leg of the Grand Slam Track series is set for April 4-6 at the National Stadium.
