Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has dominated the women's 400-meter hurdles for the past two years, winning every competition she enters, including the Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 World Championship crowns. On the other hand, Shericka Jackson, a five-time Olympic medalist, is considered the fastest woman alive.
McLaughlin-Levrone and Jackson, the current world champions of the 400-meter and 200-meter hurdles, will face each other in the 60-meter race at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meet, on February 4 in Boston. Mikiah Brisco and Aleia Hobbs will also be competing.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone to face Shericka Jackson
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who will be competing in her first 60-meter event in Boston, will face Jamaica's Jackson, one of the world's top sprinters at the moment. In 2016, Shericka Jackson ran for the second-fastest time ever to win gold in the 200-meter at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon in 21.45. She also won silver in the 100-meter and 4x100-meter, as well as bronze in the 100-meter and 400-meter Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's 50.68 world record in the women's 400-meter hurdles, achieved in Oregon last year, is the fastest time ever to run in the event. She also won gold medals with the USA's 4x400-meter teams at the Olympic Games and the 2019 and 2022 World Championships and was named the 2022 World Athletics Athlete of the Year.
Shericka Jackson will be competing in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix for the first time. Her 60-meter personal best is 7.04, which she achieved in the final of the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22.
In Boston, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Shericka Jackson will compete against some of the best athletes, including USA's Brisco, who won the global indoor silver medal last year by winning in less than seven seconds. Brisco earned her first senior individual global gold in Belgrade by clocking a time of 6.99, and she will now travel to Boston to defend the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix crown she won in 2016.
Hobbs, the 2022 US silver medalist who placed sixth in the 100-meter race at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, is also joining them.
In addition to those who have already been revealed, these elite athletes join Noah Lyles, Jake Wightman, Gabby Thomas, Grant Holloway, Trey Cunningham, Laura Muir, Ciara Mageean, Katie Moon, Katerina Stefanidi, Mariano Garcia, Bryce Hoppel, and Marvin Bracy-Williams.
When and where is New Balance Indoor Grand Prix being held?
The New Balance Indoor Grand Prix will make its debut at its new location, the TRACK at New Balance, a brand-new, cutting-edge indoor track and field facility at New Balance's global headquarters in Brighton, Massachusetts, after temporarily moving to Staten Island due to COVID-19.
The 2023 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix will be broadcast live on NBC on Saturday, February 4 from 4 to 6 pm EST. The overall tour winners of the greatest indoor athletics competitions in the globe receive $10,000 and a guaranteed berth at the Glasgow, Scotland, 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships.