The Arcadia Invitational is a high school track and field meet in the United States. It is considered the most competitive meet in the country and has been billed as the "Home of National Records". The meet is held at Arcadia High School in Arcadia, California, on either the first or second weekend in April each year. The Arcadia Invitational attracts the top prep athletes in the United States and internationally. The Arcadia Invitational has played host to 32 national high school records and has helped to produce 179 U.S. Olympians.
Kirani Zeno James COG is a Grenadian professional sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres. He won the 400 m at the World Championships in 2011 and won the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics. In the 400 metres, James also won the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, thus becoming the first man to earn the full set of three medals in the centennial history of the event. He is Grenada's first Olympic medalist. He holds the Grenadian national record in both the 200 metres and 400 metres.
The CARIFTA Games is an annual athletics competition founded by the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA). The games were first held in 1972 and consist of track and field events including sprint races, hurdles, middle distance track events, jumping and throwing events, and relays. The Games has two age categories: under-17 and under-20. Only countries associated with CARIFTA may compete in the competition.
The Kansas Relays are a three-day track meet every April, held at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. Since 1923, the Kansas Relays have attracted runners, throwers, and jumpers from all over the United States of America, bringing in athletes ranging from Olympians to high-schoolers. Olympians such as Marion Jones and Maurice Greene compete in the Gold Zone portion of the meet, which attracts thousands of spectators every year. Competitors have also broken world records at the meet. The 2004 Olympic champion, Justin Gatlin, was a prominent athlete to fail a doping test at the Kansas Relays.
The Mt. SAC Relays are an annual track and field festival held primarily at Hilmer Lodge Stadium on the Mt. San Antonio College campus in Walnut, California. The Relays are held in mid-April each year since the first edition held on April 24-25, 1959. The meet was started by Mt. San Antonio College track coach Hilmer Lodge, and flourished under his direction until his retirement in 1963. The meet attracts all levels and disciplines of the sport of Track and Field. They claim to have had as many as 9,000 competitors participate in a single year. Because of the stature of the meet, the stadium and most meet literature contains the phrase "Where the world's best athletes compete".
The Los Angeles Invitational was an elite level indoor track meet, held in the Los Angeles Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California. For 25 years the event was sponsored by the hometown Sunkist Growers, Incorporated who assumed title sponsorship and the event was known as the Sunkist Invitational. The meet was promoted by Al Franken, later with the help of his son Don under the banner of Franken Enterprises. Franken co-founded the meet along with coach Herschel Curry Smith. It was usually held in early to mid-February, was frequently televised nationally, and was an elite level stop between the Millrose Games and the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships. In addition to attracting the top elite athletes which dominated the evening schedule, it was an all day event featuring the top high school runners, just before the official track season began. The event was cancelled before its 44th edition in 2004, due to lack of sponsorship. Before its demise, it claimed to be the second longest running indoor track meet in the United States. They also claim 105 Olympic gold medalists among their alumni and many other elite athletes participated in the meet. Several still standing World, American and other national records were set at the meet.
The men's 400 metres competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, was held at the Olympic Stadium on 4–6 August. Forty-nine athletes from 38 nations competed. The event was won by 0.52 seconds by Kirani James of Grenada, earning the country its first Olympic medal. Luguelín Santos's silver was the Dominican Republic's first medal in the men's 400 metres. Lalonde Gordon's bronze was Trinidad and Tobago's first medal in the event since 1964.
Grenada competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's eighth consecutive appearance at the Olympics. Few weeks before the Games, Grenadian athletes trained at Broadbridge Heath Leisure Centre near Horsham, West Sussex.
The men's 400 metres at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Daegu Stadium on August 28, 29 and 30. The winning margin was 0.03 seconds.
Rondell Bartholomew is a Grenadian track and field sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. He has represented his country at two World Championships in Athletics and was a 400 m world finalist in 2011. His personal best for the event is 44.65 seconds.
Ernest Nicholas Newton Carter was an American track and field athlete, coach and official. He ran the 1500 metres in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, finishing a non-qualifying 3rd place in his heat.
The men's 400 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 12 and 14 August at the Olympic Stadium. Fifty-three athletes from 35 nations competed. The event was won by 0.73 seconds by Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa, who broke the world record and won the nation's second gold medal in the men's 400 metres. Kirani James of Grenada and LaShawn Merritt of the United States became the sixth and seventh men to win two medals in the event, but Michael Johnson remained the only man with two gold medals.
Grant Jackson Fisher is an American middle- and long-distance runner. Fisher holds American records in the 3000 m, two mile, 5000 m, and 10,000 m events. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Fisher won bronze medals in the 5000 m and 10,000 m, becoming the first American to medal in both events at an Olympic Games.
Grenada competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's ninth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics.
Lindon Victor is a Grenadian athlete who competes in the decathlon. He is the 2023 World and 2024 Olympic bronze medalist and a two-time Commonwealth Games champion (2018–2022).
Anderson Peters is a Grenadian javelin thrower and the 2019 and 2022 world champion in the event. In 2024, he won the bronze medal in the men's javelin throw at the Paris Olympic Games. He is a multiple time CARIFTA Games champion at the discipline and in 2016 earned a bronze medal at the 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, setting a new Grenadian national record and OECS record at the same time.
Meleni Rodney, OLY is a Grenadian sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres.
Colleen Felix is a Grenadian former track and field athlete who competed in the heptathlon. In 2009, she set the national record in that event. She is also a former national record holder in the Javelin Throw with a distance of 47.62m at Arizona State Invitational on 26 March 2011. This record was subsequently broken by Candesha Scott in 2016 at the Carifta Games. After an absence from competition, Colleen returned to competition in 2017. She took part in the revived Whitsuntide games and then the OECS Track and Field Championships which were both held at the Kirani James Athletic Stadium in Grenada.
The Tyson Invitational, is an annual indoor track and field meet which is held in early February at the Randal Tyson Track Center. It was first held in Track Capital of the South, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The men's 400 metres event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place between 1 and 5 August 2021 at the Olympic Stadium. Approximately fifty athletes were expected to compete; the exact number was dependent on how many nations use universality places to enter athletes in addition to the 48 qualifying through time or ranking. 48 athletes from 33 nations competed. The event was won by 0.23 seconds by Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas, with Anthony Zambrano of Colombia taking silver. Those were the first medals in the men's 400 metres for each of those two nations. Kirani James of Grenada won his third consecutive medal in the event with his bronze, making him the first man to earn three medals in the 400 metres.
