Kishane Thompson obliterated a field that included Oblique Seville to win the 100 meters at the Racers Grand Prix last weekend, but Gatlin feels he still has to add something to finally beat the likes of Noah Lyles and Akani Simbine.

American sprint legend Justin Gatlin has sent crucial advice to Kishane Thompson on what he must do if he is to finally cement his status as the new king of 100 meter sprinting.

 

Thompson produced an emphatic run to win the men’s 100m in 9.88 (0.0m/s) at the Racers Grand Prix, a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meeting, in Kingston, Jamaica, on Saturday (7 June).

 

Thompson, drawn in lane four, reacted quickly to the starter’s gun and pulled away from the field at the midway mark. His compatriot Oblique Seville finished with a flourish to clinch second place in a season’s best of 9.97 ahead of the South African pair of Gift Leotlela (10.04) and world U20 champion Bayanda Walaza (10.06).

 

 

“Today, I put together a decent race,” said Thompson, who registered a season’s best. “I went through my phases as best as I could, and I’m super grateful for finishing injury-free. I want everyone to be patient because great things are going to happen.”

 

 

Noah Lyles and Kishane Thompson Noah Lyles and Kishane Thompson

While the win confirmed Thompson’s immense potential, Gatlin—a former Olympic champion and multiple World Championship medallist—believes the 23-year-old must take one more key step to reach the pinnacle of global sprinting: race more consistently outside Jamaica.

 

“You always get plus-10 points when you run fast at home—it’s your comfort zone, your turf,” said Gatlin on his Ready Set Go podcast.

 

“But I want to see Kishane string more races together. That’s what’s really going to matter in the long run. You don’t want to get to Nationals or World Championships and have to grind through tough rounds just to make the final.”

 

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“That 9.88 definitely quieted a lot of people who were asking: ‘Where’s he at? Why isn’t he racing? Is he hurt? Is he ducking?’ He proved to everyone: ‘I’m walking my own path, and when I show up, I’ll be ready.’”

 

Gatlin also referenced Thompson’s near-miss in a major championship final—where the Jamaican missed out on Olympic gold by the slimmest of margins—as a learning point that underlines the importance of experience and consistency under pressure.

 

“Last year, he showed he’s a force—silver by just a hundredth of a second, and a lot of people thought he even had the gold. But the field is deeper now. There are more players in the game—from Akani Simbine, to guys like Jordan Anthony if he turns pro.”

 

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“These guys aren’t afraid to run fast, and they’ll be coming at him from every angle. For Kishane, it’s about navigating the rounds and showing he can be just as sharp in the final. That’s when it counts most.”

 

As the countdown to the Tokyo World Championships continue, all eyes will be on whether Thompson embraces this next phase of his journey—competing more globally, building race rhythm, and peaking when it matters most.

 

Kenya's Faith Kipyegon celebrates after winning the women's 1500m event of the Diamond League athletics meeting at the Olympic stadium in Rome on August 30, 2024. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP) (Photo by TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images)Liam Tharme

 

In two weeks’ time, Faith Kipyegon is attempting to become the first woman to break the iconic four-minute barrier in the mile.

 

As part of what Nike are marketing as Breaking4 — akin to Eliud Kipchoge’s Breaking2 attempt for the marathon back in 2017 — they have announced various new technologies created by a six-strong innovation team.

 

These include revolutionised super spikes, a “one-of-one” 3D-printed sports bra, and an aerodynamic “fly suit” with aeronodes that aim to reduce drag. The suit also comes complete with arm sleeves, leg sleeves and a headband.

 

Nike said, in a press release, they have used their “full power of sports science research and design expertise to create the integrated made-for-speed products to help get her there — breaking a barrier thought to be indomitable”.

 

The spikes are not the Victory 2 which Kipyegon won the Olympic 1,500m title in last summer, when she became the first athlete to win gold in that event three times and successfully defend her crown for the second Games.

 

Instead, Nike have made a “bespoke” spike using Kipyegon’s feedback. It is slightly taller than the Victory 2 and the carbon-fibre plate is lighter, while the upper is created from “ultra-lightweight yarns”.

 

There has been an effort to balance substance with style. ‘FK’ is written onto one of the plates — her initials and also standing for ‘Fastest Known’.

 

Nike are not specific in the technology used but say the spikes are made with “advanced foams” — which have revolutionised athletics along with carbon-fibre plates in marathon shoes as well as on the track — that have superior energy return to traditional racing spikes. Research has shown they can improve performance by one to three per cent.

 

Kipyegon will be debuting Nike’s new “FlyWeb” sports bra at the Stade Charlety in Paris when she attempts to knock nearly eight seconds from her own world record from Monaco two summers ago (4:07.64).

 

The 3D-printed sports bra is made from thermoplastic polyurethane, designed to be “lightweight, soft feel and breathable”. Nike says it is “one-of-one” and came about as a result of “years of experimentation”.

 

Janett Nichol, Nike’s vice president of innovation, said: “We’re just scratching the surface. This is a true unlock, not just for bras but for how we design and build high-performance apparel going forward.”

 

The other key component is the blacked-out, all-in-one super suit that Nike have crafted, with matching arm sleeves and a headband.

 

The principal researcher at the Nike Sports Research Lab Brett Kirby said: “The integrative nature of this kit means everything. Not any one thing will help her break it.”

 

Nike do not say what the suit is made from — “a new proprietary slick and stretchy material” — but they explained why it is laden with 3D-printed aeronodes.

 

These nodes, which differ in size and placement on the suit, are designed to smoothen air flow and reduce what are called ‘eddies’ in fluid dynamics. This is where fluid swirls into turbulent flow and a reverse current forms.

 

Researchers who worked on the Breaking2 project have modelled Kipyegon’s Monaco performance.

 

They found that she only drafted for the first 900 metres and ran a negative split. The researchers believe that with one pacemaker in-front and one behind for the whole race — potentially with two fresh pacemakers from 800m onwards — she can run 3:59.

 

It is, Nike accepts, a “moonshot”.

 

Kipyegon’s 2023 world-record in Monaco took more than four seconds off Sifan Hassan’s mile of 2019, which was the biggest single jump in the women’s mile world-record since the 1970s.

 

That came after Kipyegon, then 27, had already broken the 1,500m and 5,000m world records earlier in the summer, en route to winning her fourth 1,500m World Championship title.

 

She came agonisingly close, again, to breaking the 1,000m world record in her season opener in Xiamen, China, back in April. Kipyegon was less than three tenths of a second off Svetlana Masterkova’s 2:28.98 from 1998 with a 2:29.21 time that translates to a four-minute flat mile.

 

Nike’s footwear lead Carrie Dimoff said: “If she crosses the line in under four minutes, it won’t just be a new world record — it wil be a new understanding of what’s possible for women in sport.”

 

Technically, it will not be ratified as a world record by World Athletics, the sport’s global governing body.

 

This is because the race is not sanctioned and a rotating group of pacemakers is expected. Nike have not announced the strategy yet but this was their approach with Kipchoge, and, if they are to only use female athletes, nobody is on Kipyegon’s level over this distance.

 

The spikes are expected to conform to the requirements (a midsole stack height of 20mm for middle-distance events as of November 2024), but they have not been sent to World Athletics for review, and unverified spikes are world record ineligible.

 

Still, like eight years ago with Kipchoge in Monza, Nike seems unbothered about how official or not the time is.

 

As innovation lead Amy Jones Vaterlaus said: “This isn’t just a project. It’s a legacy, to change what’s possible in sport.”

 

 

Liam Tharme is one of The Athletic’s Football Tactics Writers, primarily covering Premier League and European football.

Prior to joining, he studied for degrees in Football Coaching & Management at UCFB Wembley (Undergraduate), and Sports Performance Analysis at the University of Chichester (Postgraduate). Hailing from Cambridge, Liam spent last season as an academy Performance Analyst at a Premier League club, and will look to deliver detailed technical, tactical, and data-informed analysis.

 

 

Grand Slam Track—the nascent professional track circuit founded by four-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson—is canceling its final race in Los Angeles scheduled for later this month, Front Office Sports has learned.

 

GST has an all-hands meeting scheduled for today, a source said, where the status of the meet and the future of the company will be discussed.

 

In its first season, GST has completed three track meets, in Kingston, Jamaica; Miami, and Philadelphia, which ended last week and was downsized to two days from three. The Slam in the name GST mimics the Slams of tennis, of which there are four. Each Slam has six track event groups.

 

GST had touted it would award $12.6 million in prize money in year one, so if it eliminates LA that could save more than $3 million, plus event and travel costs. The meet was scheduled for June 28–29 at UCLA.

 

Sources close to GST ascribed the looming cancellation to a variety of factors.

 

“May postpone LA because of a new strategic partner/investor,” one source wrote in a direct message. “Geopolitical climate in LA also doesn’t help,” referring to the anti-ICE protests in the city where the federal government has deployed.

 

It’s unclear why new investment money would affect the LA meet. Sources close to Grand Slam insist money is not an issue.

 

A second source cited a poor lease agreement with UCLA.

 

Last year, Winners Alliance—backed by hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman—invested $30 million in Grand Slam. As of September, the company had raised $39.5 million, according to Pitchbook.

 

In an interview with Front Office Sports last month, Johnson said he was disappointed by the poor attendance in Kingston, saying many fans bought tickets and then didn’t show up. He told reporters in Philadelphia that the new two-day format was an improvement.

 

GST is one of several U.S.-based track and field startups. Athlos, backed by Alexis Ohanian, is a women’s only event that staged its first meet September 26, 2024 in New York. Total prize money exceeded $600,000. Since, Athlos has signed as advisers and owners Sha’Carri Richardson and Gabby Thomas—who also runs in Grand Slam—with another New York meet scheduled for October of this year.

 

 

Startup leagues have flooded sports, from women’s basketball (Unrivaled), to tennis (Intennse), to volleyball and golf (TGL), to name just a few. As institutional money pours into sports, recognizing the sector as a distinct asset class, there is more money to start untested ideas. Johnson has talked about a professional track circuit for decades.

 

Track and field, like many Olympic sports, struggle with visibility in the years between the Games. There is the international Diamond League, though prize money is modest on that annual track and field circuit. Johnson’s concept is a more geographically compact series of four events with significant money. But whether there is a market remains an open question.

 

 

OLYMPIC GAMES triple jump silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts will be aiming for her third Diamond League victory oqbaf the season when she lines up at today’s sixth leg of the series, the Bislett Games in Oslo.

Ricketts currently leads the women’s triple jump standings with 16 points after securing wins in Doha and, most recently, in Rome. The Jamaican enters the competition as the favourite and will look to extend her lead at the top of the leaderboard.

In Rome, Ricketts won with a first-round effort of 14.64 metres, and she’ll be aiming to surpass that distance as she gears up for the Jamaica National Senior Championships in two weeks.

Cuba’s Leyanis Hernandez Perez, who finished second in Rome with 14.46m despite foul issues, is expected to be her main rival.

Dominica’s Olympic gold medallist Thea Lafond, who has yet to beat Ricketts this season, will be seeking her first win over the Jamaican and to improve her season’s best of 14.45m. Jamaica’s Ackelia Smith, fresh from a runner-up finish at the Racers Grand Prix in Kingston, will try to better her current season’s best of 13.84m.

Cuban competitor Liadagmis Povea will also be looking to challenge the favourites and cause an upset.

In the men’s triple jump, Jamaica’s Jordan Scott will also compete. He sits second in the Diamond League standings with seven points after finishing runner-up to Portugal’s Pedro Pichardo in Shaoxing, China, with a jump of 17.00m. Pichardo edged him out with a 17.03m performance.

Olympic champion Julien Alfred will open her season in the women’s 100 metres. She is expected to make a strong start, going up against Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith (11.16 season’s best) and Daryll Neita (11.20), as well as veteran Marie-Josée Ta Lou Smith of Côte d’Ivoire, who also has a season’s best of 11.16.

A thrilling contest is expected in the rarely contested men’s 300m hurdles, featuring the world’s top one-lap hurdlers – the USA’s Rai Benjamin,

Brazil’s Alison dos Santos, and Norway’s Karsten Warholm.

This race will serve as preparation for their rematch in the 400m hurdles this Sunday at the Stockholm Diamond League meet.