The 2025 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix is one of the most loaded editions in meet history as the US pro season officially kicks off
Because it is sponsored by a major shoe brand and operated by one of the most powerful agencies in the sport (Mark Wetmore‘s Global Athletics & Marketing), you can always count on the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix (NBIGP) to have a solid base level of talent. But the 2025 edition, which will be held at The Track at New Balance in Boston on Sunday afternoon, is especially star-studded.
Paris Olympic champions Noah Lyles, Julien Alfred, Grant Holloway, Masai Russell, and Rai Benjamin are all set to compete along with US distance stars Grant Fisher, Hobbs Kessler, Bryce Hoppel, Graham Blanks, and Parker Valby. The latter two, both New Balance pros based in Boston, will be making their professional debuts on their de facto home track.
The amount of star power is particularly notable given we are coming off an Olympic year. For most athletes, the Olympics are the culmination of a four-year training cycle and there is not always a motivation to rush right back into top-level competition — particularly since we are coming off an unprecedented stretch of four global outdoor championships in four years.
But for those that are showing up in Boston — and the Millrose Games six days later — it is time to focus on 2025, a year with indoor and outdoor World Championships and a new professional series called Grand Slam Track.
Fisher is coming off a career year that included two Olympic medals and an American record in the 2-mile (Kevin Morris photo)
“There’s some people that talk about the post-Olympic slump, kind of hard to get motivation and stuff,” Fisher told LetsRun.com last month. “And I think that applies for people that win a gold medal. If you win gold, it’s like, Man, what else is there to do now, I’m the best in the world.
“But I never had that feeling. There were two guys better than me in both events. So there’s still a carrot out in front of me…At no point did I feel the lack of motivation.”
Because NBIGP is our first real look at most of these athletes in 2025, it can serve as something of an agenda-setter for the rest of the year in track. When Lyles beat Trayvon Bromell here in the 60m two years ago, it showed his start was finally strong enough to contend with the world’s best short sprinters — and he finished that year as a triple world champion in Budapest.
Last year, Kessler looked fantastic in defeating 2022 world champion Jake Wightman in the 1500, presaging a breakout year that would see Kessler run 1:43/3:29 and make the US Olympic team in two events. Whose breakout will we be talking about when this year’s meet concludes on Sunday evening? Let’s run through some of the events and storylines to watch in Boston.
ICYMI, there’s another big meet in Boston this weekend: the John Thomas Terrier Classic at Boston University on Friday and Saturday. We previewed that event in a separate article. LRC 2025 BU Terrier: A Super Fast Men’s Mile & New Mexico’s Squad of World U20 Medalists Comes to Boston
What: 2025 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix
When: Sunday, February 2. TV window 4-6 p.m. ET.
Where: The TRACK at New Balance, Boston, Massachusetts
How to watch: Live on NBC or streaming on Peacock
*Schedule/entries *Live results *How to watch live around the world
Grant Holloway is running, which means we are required by law to mention that he has never lost a 60-meter hurdle race in his life over the 42-inch barriers used in college and pro races.
He is a perfect 63 for 63 (including prelims). Considering Holloway is coming off a year in which he set the world indoor record of 7.27 and won Olympic gold in the 110H, he is firmly in his prime and will start as a heavy favorite against a field that includes reigning US indoor champ Trey Cunningham and Olympic finalist Freddie Crittenden.
Women’s mile (3:51 p.m. ET): Engelhardt races the pros
This race comes before the TV window but is still quite strong. It features a trio of Americans who just missed out on making last year’s Olympic team in Sage Hurta-Klecker, Sinclaire Johnson, and Heather MacLean as well as three-time NCAA champion Maia Ramsden (now a pro with On Athletics Club) and Olympic 6th-placer Susan Ejore.
There is also high schooler Sadie Engelhardt, whose 4:28.46 pb currently ranks #2 on the all-time US HS list in the women’s mile, behind only Mary Cain‘s 4:24.11.
Men’s 400 (4:03 p.m. ET): Young stars Wilson & Sumner square off
America loves its phenoms, and there are two of them in this race. 17-year-old Quincy Wilson, who was upset by fellow high schooler Andrew Salvodon in his last race in the 500 meters, will step up and face the pros here, including 21-year-old Will Sumner. Sumner, the 2023 NCAA 800 champ for Georgia, missed the 2024 season due to injury, but he is working his way back into shape and ran 46.75 at Clemson last weekend.
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Neither man is the favorite here, though. That would be Trinidad & Tobago’s Jereem Richards, the 2022 World Indoor champion who finished 4th at last summer’s Olympics.
Men’s 60 (prelims 4:12 p.m. ET, final 5:54 p.m. ET): Lyles v Jacobs in a battle of Olympic champions
Olympic 100-meter champion is the most prestigious title in the sport of track & field. Anytime the Olympic 100 champion races, it is a big deal. And the men’s 60 at NBIGP will have not one Olympic 100 champ, but two: American Noah Lyles and Italy’s Marcell Jacobs. That is a rare sight indeed.
How rare? You would have to go back to the August 5, 2017 — Usain Bolt‘s final race when he was upset by Justin Gatlin at the World Championships in London — for the last head-to-head matchup between Olympic men’s 100m champions.
This should be a great matchup. Lyles is the reigning Olympic champion, World Indoor silver medalist in the 60, and he has won at this meet three years in a row. He is the favorite, but Jacobs is no slouch in the 60, either — he won World Indoors in 2022, and his 6.41 pb is faster than Lyles’ 6.43 and ranks tied for 4th all-time. Granted, that was three years ago, but Jacobs showed last year he’s still got some run in him by running 9.85 for 5th in the Olympic final.
Trayvon Bromell, the 2016 World Indoor champ, is also in this race and is still only 29 years old. Bromell’s injury history is longer than a CVS receipt, but he ran 6.42 as recently as two years ago and opened up this year in 6.62 — the same time Lyles ran in his opener last week.
Who wins the men’s 60 at 2025 NBIGP?
Women’s 60 hurdles (4:34 p.m. ET): WR holder Charlton v Olympic champ Russell
There are only five entrants in this event so it will be run as a straight final with no prelims. But the quality is very high, with reigning world indoor champ and world record holder Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas taking on Olympic 100 hurdles champ Masai Russell of the USA. Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent — the 2024 world leader in the 100 hurdles (12.24, #4 all-time) is also in the field.
Men’s 3000 (4:49 p.m. ET): Kessler opens up as teen sensation Myers gets a big test
Cameron Myers, the teenage Aussie star who ran 3:50 in the mile last year at age 17, has flown halfway around the world this winter in search of top competition. He impressed last week by winning the mile at the Dr. Sander Scorcher in New York in a world U20 indoor record of 3:53.12 but will get a sterner test on Sunday in Boston, where he will face Olympic 1500 finalists Hobbs Kessler and Neil Gourley.
Kessler won big at NBIGP last year (Kevin Morris photo)
Kessler is more of an 800/1500 guy, but he has good natural endurance (he ran 7:39 for 3k in 2023). Myers, meanwhile, ran a pb of 7:41 in Australia back in December, so he’s a bit more race sharp than Kessler, who will be making his 2025 debut.
In some ways, this race is a tuneup for the more prestigious Wanamaker Mile at Millrose next week — a race that Myers, Kessler, and Gourley are all running. But it may also offer an indication of what we can expect from Kessler later this year.
Kessler showed in 2024 that he has the speed to be a factor in the 1500, but if he is to win a medal, he needs the strength to be able to access that speed in a championship final. To win gold in the Ingebrigtsen era, it is not enough to run 3:29 after three rounds of championship racing, as Kessler did in Paris. You also need to be able to change gears off of that pace. Kessler is still working on that one. The good news is, he has time: he’s still only 21.
Jake Wightman, Josh Kerr, and Cole Hocker each began their gold-medal years with a strong 3k/2-mile indoors that was far faster than they had ever managed before. In the moment, those were regarded as solid early-season performances. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see they were clues that each man had upped his endurance to the level necessary to win gold in a global final.
That doesn’t mean Kessler is going to win gold in Tokyo if he blows everyone away in the 3,000 in Boston. But a strong early-season run at a longer distance would be a very good sign that Kessler is ready to take another step forward after his 2024 breakout.
Men’s 800 (5:04 p.m. ET): Hoppel kicks off 2025 season
Bryce Hoppel takes the indoor season seriously, typically hitting up NBIGP, Millrose, and USA Indoors, where he is riding a four-year streak of US titles. America’s best 800 runner told LetsRun.com he is not planning on defending his World Indoor title in Nanjing in March, but he will be in Boston on Sunday in the 800 and will race the same distance a week later at Millrose.
Some of the names Hoppel is up against in Boston may not sound familiar to a US audience, but this will not be an easy race. Belgium’s Pieter Sisk ran 1:43.48 last year. And Spain’s Elvin Canales just ran a national indoor record of 1:44.65 in Luxembourg two weeks ago — the fastest time in the world indoors in four years. Hoppel’s indoor pb is faster (1:44.37 from 2021), but he’ll need to be on his game to win in Boston.
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Men’s 1500 (5:21 p.m. ET): There’s a lot going on here
From a LetsRun.com perspective, this is the most interesting race of the day, with a lot of notable distance names: Graham Blanks (pro debut), Vincent Ciattei (4th at US Olympic Trials), Grant Fisher (2025 opener), Ollie Hoare, Josh Hoey (fresh off a US 1000m record), Joe Waskom, and Jake Wightman.
You would expect the 1500 specialists — Ciattei, Hoare, Waskom, Wightman — to be the best here. But Fisher, tuning for a 3000m showdown against Cole Hocker next week at Millrose, is a double Olympic medalist and is going to be competitive in any race he runs.
The two most interesting guys here are Hoey and Wightman. Last year for Hoey was about finally realizing his potential — after being stuck in the 1:47s since high school, he ran 1:43 for 800 at age 24. This year is about taking the next step and making a US team — and potentially expanding his range. Hoey told Jeff Hollobaugh in a recent Track & Field News profile that he did a big block of altitude training in Flagstaff this fall and winter and is looking to race the 1500 as well as 800 in 2025.
So far, so good. He opened up with a 3:52 mile pb at BU on December 7. Then on January 14, Hoey came just shy of the world record in the indoor 1000m by running 2:14.48. If he wins here, Hoey will stamp himself as a threat in the 1500 as well — though given how loaded the US is in that event right now, it still makes sense to prioritize the 800.
As for Wightman, we know how good he can be when he is healthy. The problem is, the 30-year-old Brit has not been healthy when it matters the last two years, missing the 2023 Worlds with a foot injury and the 2024 Olympics with a strained hamstring following a tear in his calf.
Despite that, Wightman still ran 1:44.10 for 800 and 3:47.83 in the mile last year, and he opened up this year with a solid 7:44 3k on January 4. He has a great shot to win on Sunday, though he has a history of coming up just short in Boston: in six appearances at the NBIGP, he has finished 2nd four times but has never won.
Who wins the men’s 1500 at 2025 NBIGP?
Women’s 3000 (5:39 p.m. ET): Valby debuts, Coburn returns, plus Hull v Bell
It’s time to give New Balance some credit here. For years, NB would use this meet as a showcase of its biggest stars by putting them up against soft fields they knew they could beat or having them run odd distances so they could get nice finish line photos or brag about breaking obscure American records. Not this year. New Balance just made two huge signings by inking Graham Blanks and Parker Valby, and their pro debuts will be baptisms by fire as Blanks is in a strong 1500 field and Valby is in a loaded 3000.
Valby will make her pro debut on her new home track on Sunday (Courtesy New Balance)
To that, we say: great! Professional running is hard, and adjusting to a new level of competition is part of the process of becoming a pro. It’s not like the people who became fans of Blanks and Valby during their college careers are going to abandon them just because they lose one race in February.
Valby certainly has it tough in this 3k as she is up against Jessica Hull and Georgia Bell, both of whom medalled in the 1500 at last year’s Olympics, as well as 20-year-old Ethiopian Melknat Wudu (8:32 pb), US 1500m Olympian Emily Mackay, and Elise Cranny, doubling back from the mile at BU on Friday. But Valby is also coming off a fall of base training with her New Balance Boston teammates and her first-ever altitude stint in Flagstaff, so it will be interesting to see what progress she has made since the Olympics.
Another interesting storyline — not just in this race, but throughout 2025 — is the comeback of Emma Coburn. Long the US’s top steepler, Coburn, 34, broke her ankle last season, causing her to miss the Olympic Trials — the first time she had missed out on a US team since 2013.
In her absence, four Americans broke 9:10 last season — and none were named Courtney Frerichs. Can Coburn make it back to Worlds this year? She made a solid start by running a 4:33 mile at elevation in Boulder on January 11. This race offers a much bigger challenge.
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