“It's going to be a hard race” - Gabby Thomas makes honest confession about Grand Slam Track appearance

By Riddhi Acharya

Modified Apr 04, 2025 03:02 GMT

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Gabby Thomas will be racing in Kingston this weekend (April 4-6) as she competes at the inaugural meet of Grand Slam Track. During the competition, the 200m Olympic champion will take on 400m World Champions Salwa Eid Naser and Marileidy Paulino in their specialty event, and she recently shared her honest thoughts about the upcoming race.

Grand Slam Track features a unique format where each athlete needs to compete in an event group, with each group featuring two races. Thomas is scheduled to run in the women's long sprints event group, which consists of the 200m and 400m sprints.

While the sprinter remains a heavy favorite for the win in the 200m, the 400m will be a different story, as the race will feature 2019 400m World Champion Salwa Eid Naser and reigning World and Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino. Speaking to Citius Magazine, Gabby Thomas shared her honest opinion about going up against Naser and Paulino in the 400m, saying,

“When I think about racing Salwa (Eid Naser) and (Marileidy) Paulino, I'm thinking I'm going to really challenge myself. It's going to be a hard race, it's going to be outside of my comfort zone. I'm doing the quarter and I'm doing the quarter against the best of the best. I think it'll be fun, it'll be exciting and more than anything, it'll be a challenge. I'm welcoming that challenge, I'm accepting it and hopefully I rise to the occasion.”

On the other end, in the 200m, Thomas singled out Britain's Dina Asher-Smith as her main competition, saying,

“Strategy-wise, obviously I have Dina (Asher-Smith) in the 200 with me. And for me to be stretching myself doing a corner (in the 400m), I feel as though I need to win the 200 in order to come out on top in the Slam, so I have my eye on Dina because that's going to be a good little rivalry for the 200.”

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Gabby Thomas’ schedule at the Grand Slam Track

Thomas in action at the Paris Olympics (Image Source: Getty)

Gabby Thomas got her 2025 season off to a strong start in March, taking the win in the 4x100m and finishing third in the 4x400m event at the Texas Relays.

Now, the American is gearing up for her first individual race of the season. On Friday, April 4, Thomas will race the 200m at 5:42 PM local time in Kingston for the debut meet of Grand Slam Track. She will follow this up with the 400m race on Saturday at 7:21 PM local time.

Outside of Gabby Thomas, the women's long sprint event at the Grand Slam Track features ‘Racers' Marileidy Paulino, Salwa Eid Naser, Nickisha Pryce, and Alexis Holmes, as well as ‘Challengers' Dina Asher-Smith, Talitha Diggs, and Stacey Ann Williams.