American Track Stars Defeated by Ethiopian Athletes on Home Soil at New Balance Indoor Grand Prix

The 2024 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix took place in Boston, Massachusetts. While it is natural to think that the home team always gets a turf advantage, that wasn’t the case this time around. The Ethiopian track and field stars dazzled the US crowd as they kept securing big wins in their events.

The Ethiopians reigned supreme in several events and showed to both the US and Jamaican contingents that they were not the only competitors. Interestingly, a social media post tallied all the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix events taken over by Ethiopia. In fact, they didn’t just give tough competition to the US, but to everyone across the globe.

The representatives of Ethiopia have the floor

New Balance Indoor Grand Prix added a tweet captioned, “Successful night in Boston for our Ethiopian athletes 🇪🇹. (1) Men’s 3000m meet record 7:29.09 for Lamecha Girma. (2) Women’s 3000m world U20 record of 8:32.34 for Melknat Wudu. (3) Women’s 1500m meet record for Gudaf Tsegay. (4) Women’s 1500m world U20 record of 3:58.43 for Birke Haylom.”

The images attached to the tweet showed the Ethiopian athletes completing their races like routine clockwork. Most notably, Lamecha Girma’s image catches him solo, as the second-place holder was ten seconds behind him. It appeared that the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix gold medals were additional tokens to them while records were their real goal.

Interestingly, the final heat of the women’s 1500-meter race saw the top two spots go to Ethiopia as well. Both the top two finishers also created new records. But, all the glory didn’t go to the Ethiopians. While they shined on the longer courses, the Americans shined on the shorter courses of the Indoor Grand Prix.

US winners at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix

Starting his Olympic year with a bang, 6x World Champion Noah Lyles won the 60m dash. 2x Olympian athlete Gabby Thomas also emerged victorious in the women’s 300m run. Acing the 60m men’s hurdles at the Indoor Grand Prix, the US bagged the first five positions with Grand Halloway taking the gold.

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The long-distance tracks didn’t entirely go to Ethiopia as the US men clinched the 1500m race. Winning the top honor for the US was Hobbs Kessler. But overall it was the Ethiopian athletes who dominated the longer tracks. Will the US team be able to change the narrative at the Paris Olympics?

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