Olympic 100m bronze medallist Melissa Jefferson-Wood powered to victory in the women’s 200m at the Grand Slam Track meet in Philadelphia on Saturday, clocking an impressive 21.99 seconds to narrowly defeat Olympic 200m champion Gabby Thomas at Franklin Field.
Specializing in the shorter sprints, Jefferson-Wood said she was determined to bounce back 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.
In other standout performances, Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent stormed to the women’s 100m hurdles title in 12.44 seconds, while Kenya’s Agnes Jebet Ngetich captured the 1500m in 3:58.04.
Dominican Republic’s Marileidy Paulino impressed with a 49.12-second win in the women’s 400m hurdles, and Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith took the men’s 400m in 44.51.
Canada’s Marco Arop continued his strong form in the men’s 800m, securing victory in 1:43.48 — his third win in the event at a Grand Slam meet. The reigning world champion and Olympic silver medallist pulled away from American Josh Hoey (1:44.41) and is expected to compete in the 1500m on Sunday.
“It felt great — the crowd, look at this!” Arop told TNT Sports. “It’s easy to run fast in a stadium like this, so I had to put on a show.”
In the men’s 200m, Kenny Bednarek clocked 19.95 seconds to take the win, while Brazil’s Alison dos Santos remained unbeaten in the men’s 400m hurdles with a 48.11-second performance.
Athletes are competing across 12 events, with overall points from two races determining group champions on Sunday.
