The reigning women’s 100m champion vs the five-time Olympic medalist – the most awaited race of the Miramar Invitational 2025. Julien Alfred & Shericka Jackson went head-to-head in 300m at the Ansin Sports Complex in the city of Miramar, Florida, on April 5, 2025. It was a close race, with Jackson picking up the early lead, but then Julien took over and won the race. Jackson clocked a 36.13 while Alfred went on to create a new national record. Marking 36.05 on the clock, she set a new national record for her country. But this victory wasn’t that sweet as the invitational had its own problems. They were?
To begin with, the broadcasting of the Miramar Invitational was poor. The event, which was being streamed on the YouTube channel American Track League, captured too much background noise and less commentatory. While it is great to hear the crowd’s reaction as they see their favorites cross the line and win the race, it is equally enjoyable for the fans to have some commentary as well. All we got was the crowd’s cheers.
But talking of the crowd, there wasn’t much of it either. As the camera panned outwards and the whole of the Ansin Sports Complex, Miramar, Florida came into view, the stands were mostly empty. There was a scattered crowd in the venue, but the number of people was very low. When mixed with this kind of crowd showing up added to it, the broadcasting issue was somewhat disrespectful to the athletes in certain ways. Especially the ones who have the prestige of having an Olympic medal slid down their neck.
Olympic 400m gold medalist Steven Gardiner and 2024 Olympic Silver Medalist Kishane Thompson are some of the big ones that showed up. Rasheed Broadbell, a 2024 Olympic bronze medalist in the 110m hurdles, and 2020 Olympics 400m gold medalist Steven Gardiner were present at the event. Now, with such big names in the Miramar Invitational, you would expect at least one big broadcaster to step in. They didn’t. The broadcast was not picked up by NBC or Peacock.
Watch LIVE: 2025 Miramar Invitational https://t.co/JYxmKDxEyB
— FloTrack (@FloTrack) April 5, 2025
Added to this was also the interview that was being streamed, which failed to capture what the athletes were saying. For instance, Julien Alfred had to record her interview twice due to background news. And to top it all, the date mismanagement! The date clashed with Grand Slam Track. Was it given a thought, or was it ignored? Well, we don’t have any official clarification on the matter.
Though this is not the first time the invitational has been under scrutiny for broadcasting issues. Previously, it even brought it comments from a top elite athlete himself.
Streaming failures have been an issue for the Miramar Invitational
When the Miramar Invitational took place in 2024, the streaming services were no good either. This time, it wasn’t more of a mistake of the league but of the streaming giant Peacock. Before the league began, Peacock had promised the fans of track and field that they would be streaming the Miramar Invitational. So the fans logged into it on April 6th only to find out the meet be missing in action the platform. This incident brought in quite a roar from the fans, and the 2024 Paris Olympics Gold Medalist Noah Lyles joined that club as well.
The Olympian did not like that there was no live stream of the event on Peacock. “I guess the track meet isn’t on peacock,” he tweeted. Once his tweet was live, the fans’ frenzy began. So, what are your thoughts on such recurring issues? Let us know in the comments down below!
The post Bad News for Julien Alfred & Shericka Jackson as Miramar Invitational’s Entire Mismanagement Highlighted appeared first on EssentiallySports.
