– Hudson-Smith finished just four-hundredths of a second behind Hall to take silver in Paris. He was the first British man to make the Olympic podium of the 400m at the Olympics since 1996. He has now medaled at the last three global championships with a bronze at the 2022 World Championships and a silver from the 2023 World Championships in Budapest (just 0.09s shy of the gold). He also split 43.09 on the second leg of Team GB’s bronze medal-winning squad in the 4x400m Olympic final.

– In 2024, Hudson-Smith broke the European 400m record three times and his personal best of 43.44 puts him at No. 5 on the all-time list. Hudson-Smith won three Diamond League meets in 2024.

How They Stack Up Head-To Head

Hall and Hudson-Smith have only raced head-to-head four times in their respective pro careers and just twice outside of a global championship. They have split their head-to-head meetings 2–2. In 2024, they are 1–1 against each other with Hudson-Smith winning May’s Oslo Diamond League to break the European record for the first time in 44.07 (Hall was 5th in 45.02) but then getting beat in the Olympic final.

Samukonga has a 2–1 winning record over Hall, beating him at the Doha and Marrakech Diamond League meets in May. He also has a 3–2 winning record over Hudson-Smith, including his victory over him for gold in the 400m final at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

All three athletes have never raced each other over 200m. Hudson-Smith owns the fastest 200m personal best of the bunch with his 20.34 from winning the 2024 British Olympic Trials in June. Samukonga has not raced the 200m since he ran 20.48 at an all-comers meet in his hometown of Lusaka, Zambia. Hall has not raced the 200m since he ran 21.65 as a high schooler in 2015.

The Final Racer Spot

One contracted Racer spot remains for Grand Slam Track’s long sprints group in 2025.

Here’s a look at some of the possible candidates to sign onto the league:

Letsile Tebogo | Botswana | 200m PB, 19.46 (Paris Olympics, 2024) + 400m PB, 44.29 (Pretoria, 2024)

The Olympic champion and 2024 world leader in the 200m (19.46) has shown glimpses of incredible 400m potential after anchoring Botswana to an Olympic silver medal with a 43.03 split. At just 21 years old, he may be leaning more toward being a 100m / 200m sprinter for the moment. He’s likely also being pursued for the short sprints category as well.

CITIUS MAG has dubbed athletes who can move from Grand Slam category to category as “unicorns,” so Tebogo has to be considered a sprints unicorn. Plus, he hasn’t been shy about sharing how money can motivate him to race.

Jereem Richards | Trinidad and Tobago | 200m PB, 19.80 (Birmingham, 2022) + 400m PB, 43.78 (Paris Olympics, 2024)

In keeping with Grand Slam Track’s mantra of “Only the Fastest”, then Richards being the fourth-fastest man of 2024 with a 43.78 personal best, national record, and fourth place finish at the Paris Olympics would put him next in line to sign.

Unlike the three Olympics 400m medalists, Richards races the 200m often. He earned a bronze medal in the 200m at the 2017 World Championships in London and is the reigning Commonwealth Games champion with a personal best of 19.80 from 2022. He could be the Racer that disrupts the points standings come the 200m race.

Kirani James | Grenada | 200m PB, 20.41 (El Paso, 2011) + 400m PB, 43.74 (Lausanne, 2014)

Despite his personal bests being more than a decade old, James is still just 32 years old and coming off a strong 2024 campaign that included a 43.78 season’s best in the Olympic semifinal, a fifth place finish in the final and a runner-up finish in the Diamond League final. James is tied with Richards for the fourth-fastest man of 2024. One downside that may give the Racer edge to Richards is that James has not raced a 200m since 2014, but the 2012 Olympic champ would surely still be a formidable challenger.

Michael Norman | USA | 200m PB, 19.70 (Rome, 2019) + 400m PB, 43.45 (Torrance, 2019)

People forget that, before Norman was a 400m star, he was a 200m World Junior champion and finished fifth in the 200m final at the Olympic Trials in 2016. He’s been mostly focused on mastering the 400m since 2017 and it’s led him to two NCAA titles, two Olympic teams and the 2022 World Championship gold medal. 2024 was a comeback season from injury, where Norman managed to work his way back to 44.10 shape by the Olympics. If he’s able to come close to rediscovering his form from 2019, when he ran 19.70 for 200m and 43.45 for 400m, he’d be a favorite for this group. Like Tebogo, Norman has unicorn potential as one of the few members of the sub-10/sub-20/sub-44 club.

Other notable candidates: Canada’s Christopher Morales-Williams, USA’s Vernon Norwood, Belgium’s Alexander Doom, Great Britain’s Charlie Dobson, and the Bahamas' Steven Gardiner.