Rushell Clayton Photo: Naphtali Junior
Gera envisions Grand Slam Track’s ‘Festival of Speed’
Fans are in for Olympic Games-quality races at this weekend’s launch of the newest innovation in the sport says Grand Slam Track President Steve Gera. He said they are also expecting good support from overseas visitors to the venues.
After the three-day staging at the National Stadium in Jamaica starting on Friday, the four-meet series will have stops in Miami, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.
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Gera said Jamaica deserves a meet of this quality.
“I know that Kingston’s never hosted a Diamond League. It’s never hosted a senior World Championships, and we think that’s a shame. This is the sprint capital of the world. This country, in this city. It deserves to have a premier track, Olympic-quality track meet here, and that’s what we’re bringing,” Gera told the Jamaica Observer during the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships at the National Stadium on Saturday .
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The first race, the women’s 400m, is set to feature World Championships and Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic and American 200m gold medallist Gabby Thomas.
“[They are] going toe-to-toe for the first time, and we an amazing cadre of other six other racers who are going to be going up toe-to-toe against them, so it is going to be excitement from the very first race to the last race, you’re going to see Olympic-quality racers just going head-to-head in races that all matter,” he said.
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“There are no heats, these are all finals, every single race is a final. We have 35 medallists from Paris who are coming and at this stage we have 16 Jamaican sprinters who are coming out and racing with us, [including] Roshawn Clark, Oblique Seville, and Ackera Nugent,” he said.
“They made their names here for the first time, here at Champs, many years ago, and for them to come back and launch our league here in Kingston as the stars of our new league, that’s absolutely amazing. So you’ll see the best racing in the world,” Gera noted.
Gera said ticket sales had been going well overseas.
“So far we’ve heard from people all the way from New York to Philadelphia, and folks who go to the Penn Relays on a regular basis. We think we have a significant fan base who will actually be flying in for this. We’ve sold a lot of tickets in the United States for Kingston, so we’re really excited to actually be having people.
“I know I have at least 15 people who are coming here to Jamaica for the first time. Just people who are coming, you know, because they know me and they’re part of this, so I think when you look across our entire organisation, we probably have, you know, thousands of folks, if not more, who are coming to Jamaica for the first time to come see this meet,” he said.
The Grand Slam Track president said there will be other activities to complement the main event, starting with a 5K that was held on Sunday.
“We’re going to have a number of other activities at the venue. For kids and families we’re going to have face painters, we’re going to be actually painting a mural over the course of the entire weekend.
We’re going to have deejays here, we’re having live music, just like the live music that’s going off behind us right now. We have a couple of local Jamaican acts actually coming out, and artists and musicians to come out and actually be a part of it. It’s gonna be real Festival of Speed,” Gera boasted.
