Masai Russell is setting track and field things up clearly in a new way. This season, she has changed the world-leading timing in the women’s 60m hurdles indoor event three times so far. Yes, in 30 days, she has jumped over every challenge to change the timing and claim her first national indoor title as well. So, in her impressive story, Masai won the Olympics gold before winning the national championship. As we mentioned, she is crafting something new! However, there are a few criticisms following her because of her moves in sports.

On February 22 this year, Masai Russell’s victory in the women’s 60m hurdles in the USA Indoor Championships made her the first athlete after Brianna Rollins to win the Olympic gold in the women’s 100 mH event and the national indoor title in the 60 mH event. In the event, she took 7.74 seconds to claim the title and set a new world lead timing. But her announcement after the event changed everything. “For me personally and me mentally, I like to take a break before like spinning it up again,” she said. It could be an important decision made by her. But a track and field coach seems to have some issues with it.

Coach Rob Track and Field, the Scholar Champion Athlete coach, shared a view on February 24 on his YouTube channel. According to him, the conflict between the calendars of the Grand Slam Track and the World Athletics Indoor Championships has made Masai make such a decision. His actual words in the video were, “Either way, she [Masai Russell] is a part of Grand Slam Track, and because the world indoor meet conflicts with the schedule for Grand Slam Track, or at least it’s very close on the calendar.” Are his words justified? Let’s have a look.

The social media handles of Grand Slam Track on September 25 last year announced Masai Russell’s name as the signed athlete for the league. Well, the schedule claims that the first installment of GST will come to Kingston, Jamaica, and go on from April 4 to 6. Masai will show up at the event. But what about the World Athletics Indoor Championships in China?

The global contest will go on from March 21 to 23 in Nanjing, China. So, there will be almost a two-week gap between the World Athletics Indoor Championships and GST. Wouldn’t those days have given sufficient rest to an athlete to enter both events?

Coach Rob had the same question. However, in a few seconds, he came up with an answer. He said, “It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to focus on that event when she could focus on the one she’s already contracted for that does pay good money…..” Money does have a huge role to play here.

In GST, the athletes have a contract to appear in each of the four Slams. Each Slam will come with $100,000 in purse for the topper. So winning four Slams will allow the Olympian to take $400,000 home. And what about the World Athletics Indoor Championships? A perfect number has yet to come. But it might not touch the amount GST has promised. So things might be pretty clear by now.

But there’s still something more in the story.

Masai Russell prefers this track and field contest as her second choice 

After the USA Indoor Championships, Masai Russell made another thing clear. In the mixed zone, she said, “I just think it’s going to set me up really great for the outdoor season because the season is very long this year, ends in September, so I want to make sure that I am ready to run, my mindset is there. And you know, my compass is still going into the world outdoors.” However, it wasn’t the first time she said that. Right after defeating the world indoor champion Grace Stark by clocking 7.76 in the Millrose Games this year, she had hinted at it. What was it?

Masai Russell is looking forward to entering the World Athletics Championships scheduled in Japan in September this year. After winning the Olympic and the national titles, she is yearning to carve her name in the world championship. Eyeing that, she told Citius Mag, “World indoors is very close to the first Grand Slam, so for me personally you know the goal is September.” Moreover, she outrightly added, “I’m going to do US championships. That’ll be my last in season.” From that perspective, Masai Russell is advancing on the right path. She has set benchmarks in the indoor events. For now, the rest of the route is about to cover the outdoor ones. And we are looking forward to it.