by Larry Eder
The New Balance Indoor Grand Prix is, perhaps, my favorite indoor meeting in the world. The performances are all about how the athletes get the love from the audience. Now in its 29th year, the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix will be on February 4, 2024; this is a must-visit year, as we build to Paris in August 2024.
Fred Kerley and Lamecha Girma are to make New Balance Indoor Grand Prix debuts in Boston on Feb 4. Stacked women’s 3000m field highlights the 29th-annual event at The TRACK at new balance
Boston, Mass. (Jan. 9, 2024) – Fred Kerley, the 2022 World Champion at 100m, and Lamecha Girma, the world record-holder in the 3000m steeplechase, are set to make their New Balance Indoor Grand Prix debuts on Sunday, Feb. 4, organizers announced today.
Tickets for the event at the TRACK at new balance on Feb. 4, which forms part of the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold, are now on sale at www.nbindoorgrandprix.com or by calling 1-877-849-8722.
One of the most versatile sprinters racing today, Fred Kerley, will be racing at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix for the first time. Kerley won his first individual global medal at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, taking bronze in the 400m. Two years later, Kerley dropped down the 100m, in which he came away with the silver medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. In 2022, Kerley won the 100m gold at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, OR. Kerley will be racing the first 60m dash of his career at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, where he will face compatriot and previously announced triple world champion Noah Lyles.
Another international medalist making his Boston debut, Lamecha Girma, leads the field in the men’s 3000m. Girma has won 3000m steeplechase silver medals at the 2019, 2022, and 2023 World Athletics Championships, as well as at the 2020 Olympic Games. Last year, Girma ran 7:23.81 at the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais in Liévin, France, to erase Daniel Komen’s 25-year-old world indoor record at 3000m. Continuing his record spree into the outdoor season, Girma demolished Saif Saeed Shaheen’s 19-year-old world record in the 3000m steeplechase with a 7:52.11 clocking at the Meeting de France Diamond League in Paris.
The women’s 3000m will see the return of local favorite Elle St. Pierre. A native of Vermont and a University of New Hampshire graduate, St. Pierre won the two-mile at the 2021 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in an American record of 9:10.28, the third-fastest time in history. In 2022, she won the silver medal over 3000m at the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade before taking the 2023 season off for maternity leave. In the 3000m, St. Pierre will line up against Ireland’s Ciara Mageean, the 2022 European Championships and Commonwealth Games silver medalist at 1500m, and Ethiopia’s Medina Eisa, the world U20 record-holder at 5000m.
Those top athletes join the previously announced Gabby Thomas, Jake Wightman, Grant Holloway, Daniel Roberts, Trey Cunningham, Marco Arop, Mariano García, Bryce Hoppel and Gudaf Tsegay.
The 2024 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix will be shown live on NBC from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 4, and is a founding member of the World Athletics Indoor Tour. The series of the best indoor athletics events around the world awards overall tour winners $10,000 and a guaranteed spot at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, in March.
Now in its 29th year, the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix has played host to nine world records and 16 American records.
About New Balance
New Balance, headquartered in Boston, MA, has the following purpose: Independent since 1906, we empower people through sport and craftsmanship to create positive change in communities around the world. Manufactured in the U.S. for more than 75 years and representing a limited portion of our U.S. sales, New Balance MADE U.S. is a premium collection that contains a domestic value of 70% or greater. New Balance owns five factories in New England and one in Flimby, U.K. New Balance employs more than 7,000 associates around the globe, and in 2022 reported worldwide sales of $5 billion. To learn more about New Balance, please visit www.newbalance.com, and for the latest press information, please visit http://newbalance.newsmarket.com.
