Olympic 100m bronze medallist Melissa Jefferson-Wood clocked 21.99 seconds in the women’s 200m at the Grand Slam Track meet in Philadelphia on Saturday, edging Olympic 200m gold medallist Gabby Thomas at Franklin Field.
Jefferson-Wood, who usually specialises in shorter sprints, said her 200m training paid off after a third-place finish in Miami earlier this month.
“I’ve been training for it, I told myself what happened in Miami wasn’t going to happen again,” she said.
Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent won the women’s 100m hurdles in 12.44 seconds, while Kenya’s Agnes Jebet Ngetich claimed the 1500m title in 3:58.04.
Dominican Marileidy Paulino recorded 49.12 seconds to win the women’s 400m long hurdles, while Briton Matthew Hudson-Smith took the men’s 400m event in 44.51.
Canada’s Marco Arop claimed victory in the men’s 800m in 1:43.48 – his third win in the event at Grand Slam races.
Arop, who won world championship gold in 2023 and Olympic silver in 2024, pulled away from American Josh Hoey, who finished second in 1:44.41, and is set to run the 1,500m on Sunday.
“It felt great, the crowd, look at this! It’s easy to run fast in a stadium like this so I had to put on a show for them,” Arop told TNT Sports.
Also in the men’s events, Kenny Bednarek recorded 19.95 seconds for the 200m while Brazilian Alison dos Santos remained undefeated after winning the men’s 400m hurdles in 48.11 seconds.
Competitors take part in two races over 12 events, with overall points totals deciding group champions on Sunday.