NIa Akins & Charisma Taylor entered in Athlos NYC women's only meet Thursday...

While the majority of competitors have called it a wrap on the 2024 professional track and field season, there is one significant meet remaining on the calendar, as a field of 36 women in six different running events will go head-to-head Thursday evening at the Athlos NYC meet at Icahn Stadium on New York's Randall's Island.

Current Seattle resident Nia Akins (Paul Merca photo), the two time US national champion and Paris Olympian at 800 meters, will run in her specialty.

Akins is one of two Americans in the field along with Addy Wiley, who has the fastest time among US citizens this season at 1:56.83.

Wiley did not advance to the finals at the US Olympic Trials in June, after suffering a bout of food poisoning, and a hamstring injury three weeks before the meet.

After winning the Olympic Trials in a personal best 1:57.36, Akins, who was a world championships finalist last year, got as far as the semifinals at the Olympics.

Shortly upon the conclusion of the Olympics, she elected to end her contract with Brooks and also left the Seattle based Brooks Beasts. 

Akins ran in Diamond League meets in Lausanne, Chorzów, and Zürich.

The field in the women's 800 includes 2024 world indoor champ and Olympic silver medalist Tsige Duguma of Ethiopia and Olympic bronze medalist and last year's world champion at this distance, Mary Moraa of Kenya.

Natoya Goule-Toppin of Jamaica and Halimah Nakaayi of Uganda round out the field.

In the 100 hurdles, former Washington State All-American Charisma Taylor of the Bahamas goes against a trio of Americans in Olympic champion Masai Russell, Olympic finalist Alaysha Johnson, and Tonea Marshall.

Also in the field are bronze medalist Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico, and Budapest world champion Danielle Williams of Jamaica.

Besides the 800 and 100 hurdles, the 100, 200, 400 and 1500 will be contested Thursday night.

The meet, which is the brainchild of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian (and husband of tennis legend Serena Williams), describes itself as "Coachella meets a track meet'.

DJ D-Nice will spin sets between races. And at the end of the meet, rapper Megan Thee Stallion will perform on stage.

And oh by the way, there's a nice pool of money waiting.

It's $60,000 for the win in each event — double what the winners received at this year’s Wanda Diamond League final in Brussels (there’s also $25,000 for second, $10,000 for third down to $2,500 for 6th). 

If you can't get to New York to watch the meet, you can watch it on YouTube and X Thursday at 4 pm Pacific, as well as via subscription services DAZN and ESPN+ (with a re-air on ESPN2 on Sunday).

Courtesy of CBS Mornings, here's an interview conducted last month with Ohanian in advance of the meet.

The start list for the meet is available here. 

NOTE: Athlos NYC contributed to this report.

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