Canada’s most decorated male Olympian, Andre De Grasse, will get an early start on the 2025 track and field campaign. De Grasse plans to open his season at the Astana Indoor Meet in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Jan. 25, competing in the men’s 60-metre event in the first World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold Series meeting of the season.
De Grasse will face a strong field, featuring Olympic 100m silver medallist Kishane Thompson of Jamaica, who will be making his indoor track debut. While Thompson has never raced indoors, he has a 60-metre best of 6.67 seconds, set in an outdoor race in 2022. Thompson has a 100m best of 9.77 seconds–the fastest time in the world last year.
The world’s fastest man in 2024, Kishane Thompson 🇯🇲 is set to make his indoor debut over 60m on Jan. 25 at the WA Indoor Tour Gold in Astana, going up against Andre de Grasse 🇨🇦.
Twin sisters, Tia & Tina 🇯🇲 Clayton, will run the women’s equivalent, joined by Natasha Morrison. pic.twitter.com/DNNOkGN0Mt
— Track & Field Gazette (@TrackGazette) January 9, 2025
The seven-time Olympic medallist from Markham, Ont., opened his season at the same meet last year, where he finished sixth, in 6.66 seconds. De Grasse’s personal best in the short-sprint event is 6.60 seconds, set during his final year at the University of Southern California (USC) before he turned pro ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Many sprinters use the 60 metres as a pre-season event for the outdoor season. The event is commonly used to develop a sprinter’s start out of the blocks and explosive power in the first 30 metres. With the 2025 World Indoor Championships happening in two months in Nanjing, China, the Canadian could be targeting the men’s 60m entry standard of 6.55 seconds.
De Grasse’s last race was the men’s 4x100m relay Olympic final on Aug. 9, when he anchored Team Canada to gold, the country’s first gold medal in the event in 28 years. Like De Grasse, Thompson also hasn’t raced since Paris, making this showdown one to look forward to.
