KINGSTON – Track and field is set for a thrilling trans­for­ma­tion as the in­au­gur­al Grand Slam Track se­ries, spear­head­ed by sprint­ing icon Michael John­son, kicks off in Kingston, Ja­maica on Fri­day.

Dubbed a po­ten­tial “rev­o­lu­tion” for the sport, the four-event cir­cuit aims to reignite glob­al in­ter­est in ath­let­ics with an in­no­v­a­tive for­mat de­signed to show­case elite head-to-head com­pe­ti­tion.

Four-time Olympic gold medal­ist John­son be­lieves this bold ini­tia­tive marks a turn­ing point for the sport, of­fer­ing a fresh ap­proach to en­gag­ing fans be­yond the tra­di­tion­al Olympic cy­cle.

“Ex­cite­ment is the name of the game right now,” John­son told Cana Sports. The ath­letes are pumped, the fans are ea­ger, and af­ter Kingston, they’ll be count­ing down the days un­til Mi­a­mi and be­yond.”

The se­ries opens in the sprint fac­to­ry of Ja­maica, be­fore head­ing to Mi­a­mi May 2-4, Philadel­phia will then be next from May 30-June 1, and Los An­ge­les will close out the show from June 27-29.

Grand Slam Track fea­tures a unique struc­ture with 48 con­tract­ed ath­letes who will com­pete across all four meets, joined by 48 “chal­lengers” at each stop.

The 96 com­peti­tors, split even­ly be­tween men and women, are di­vid­ed in­to 12 spe­cial­ized groups of eight, with each ath­lete rac­ing twice over the three-day events.

With sub­stan­tial prize mon­ey on the line, from US $100,000 for group win­ners and US $10,000 for run­ners-up, the stakes are high for the in­au­gur­al event.

The Kingston open­er will show­case 32 Paris Olympic medal­ists, in­clud­ing Amer­i­can 400m hur­dles phe­nom Syd­ney McLaugh­lin-Lev­rone and reign­ing 200m Olympic cham­pi­on Gab­by Thomas.

CMC