The Grand Slam Jerusalem returns to the National Stadium in Givat Ram on Thursday, June 25, as the third consecutive edition of a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meeting. Approximately 76 athletes from 29 countries are listed, up from 60-plus athletes and 26 countries in the 2025 edition. The meet is organized with the Jerusalem Municipality and the Israel Athletics Association, with Eldan Transportation back as main sponsor the official Grand Slam Jerusalem 2026 preview. Tickets are available through the Bimot website.
Israeli headliners include Blessing Afrifah, Omri Shiff, Yonatan Kapitolnik, Adva Cohen, and Mercy Afrifah, several of them chasing qualifying marks ahead of the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham in August. Organizers have added a family fan zone and a transparent interview studio at the stadium expo area.
The Field Spans 29 Countries
The 2026 entry list draws from the United States, Canada, Brazil, France, Greece, Ukraine, Hungary, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ethiopia, and Uganda, with additional nations rounding out the 29-country field. Three national relay squads will travel for the 4×100-meter relay: Ukraine, Lithuania, and Poland. Members of those relay teams will also enter individual events during the evening session. The mix reflects the Continental Tour Silver tier’s role as a mid-season checkpoint for athletes targeting late-summer championships. Coaches in the stands get a clean read on form roughly six weeks before European selection decisions harden.
The relay contingent adds a team dimension to a program built around individual marks. Israel’s sprinters will line up against athletes who have already logged season-best times on stops in Ostrava, Hengelo, and Los Angeles. The 29-country field sits on top of the 26-country roster that competed in 2025, when more than 60 athletes took part.
Israel’s Headliners and Their Targets
Israel’s roster is led by Blessing Afrifah, Omri Shiff, Yonatan Kapitolnik, Adva Cohen, Romi Tamir, Alina Drutman, and Mercy Afrifah, with Estelle Valanu, Menachem Chen, and Ishai Ifraimov also listed the 2026 Grand Slam Jerusalem entry list. Afrifah, the 200-meter specialist and two-time European U23 champion, returns to Givat Ram a year after a heatstroke incident in the 200m and a missed 100m qualification. Shiff holds the Israeli national record in the 400m hurdles. Cohen is the national record holder in the 3000m steeplechase.
Mercy Afrifah, Blessing’s younger sister, set an indoor record this past winter and is targeting the stadium record in Givat Ram. “After the record I set indoors this past winter, the stadium record is definitely my goal,” she said in comments released by the organizers.
The professional goals I set for myself in 2026 are, first of all, the Grand Slam, the European Championships, and the podium. But above all, it is important for me to make things right after last year’s competition, when I suffered heatstroke in the 200-meter race and did not qualify for the 100 meters. This time, I have to succeed.
Blessing Afrifah, a two-time European U23 200m champion, framed the meeting as a personal reckoning.
Kapitolnik, the high jumper who cleared 2.21m to win at Givat Ram last year, is rebuilding after an injury-disrupted spell training in the United States. “I started this year in the United States,” he said. “It was a challenging year for me after the injury I went through, but over the past two months, following my training, I feel that I have managed to make progress. I am at the beginning of a process, and I am happy about that.” His path to a third straight Jerusalem title now runs through the same Birmingham qualifying window his teammates are chasing.
A Stop on the Road to Birmingham
The Jerusalem Grand Slam sits roughly six weeks before the European Athletics Championships, which begin August 10 in Birmingham. Athletes from across Europe use Givat Ram as a competitive checkpoint, with the August championships still ahead. For Shiff, the 400m hurdles standard, the ranking points, and the rhythm work all converge in the same evening. For Kapitolnik, the high jump qualifying mark sits inside a tight window between late-June meets and late-July selection deadlines.
The Continental Tour Silver status gives Jerusalem’s results weight inside World Athletics’ ranking tables the Continental Tour Silver listing for Grand Slam Jerusalem. A fast time in Israel on June 25 carries forward into late-summer selection meetings.
Several athletes in the field have already raced on the 2026 Continental Tour at stops in Ostrava, Hengelo, and Los Angeles. Their late-June form is part of a publicly readable arc that selectors in Birmingham will study. The Jerusalem program is built to give both sprinters and distance athletes one last clean read before the August push.
The 34-Year Mark That Fell Last August
The headline memory the organizers are selling is Omri Shiff’s run at the 2025 Grand Slam Jerusalem, when he stopped the clock in the 400m hurdles at 49.82 seconds and broke an Israeli national record that had stood for 34 years. The mark was a season-best level performance that announced Shiff as a contender on the senior European circuit. It also gave the second edition of the Jerusalem meet its first global athletics headline. The 2026 edition is the first chance to see whether Shiff can chase the standard down further on the same track.
Shiff trains at Long Beach State and competes on the U.S. collegiate circuit during the spring. The Givat Ram evening closes his European summer block before the Birmingham push.
The 2025 meet produced a stack of Israeli highlights beyond Shiff’s hurdles record. Yonatan Kapitolnik won the high jump at 2.21m. Noam Mamo won the 800m in 1:49.65. Zemnu Mucha set an Israeli record in the 2000m steeplechase at 5:41.49 the 2025 Grand Slam Jerusalem results recap. The depth of national marks underlined Jerusalem’s value as a fast-track surface for Israeli athletes.
International winners in 2025 included Taymir Burnett of the Netherlands, who took the men’s 100m in 10.04 and the 200m in 20.19. Daria Zabawaska of Poland won the women’s discus at 59.37m, and Loulasson Johan of France took the men’s discus at 63.22m. Erwan Konaté of France won the men’s long jump at 8.06m.
The 2025 edition drew more than 60 athletes and around 1,500 spectators to the Givat Ram stands. The 2026 field of 76 athletes and 29 countries expands on those figures. Eldan’s transparent studio, set up in the expo area, hosted live interviews throughout the 2025 evening. The organizers’ closing recap pointed ahead with a single line: “Grand Slam 2026 promises plenty to be excited about.” Children’s and youth heats from U14 through U18 ran alongside the senior program.
- 49.82 seconds: Omri Shiff’s Israeli national record in the 400m hurdles, set at Givat Ram in 2025
- 34 years: how long the previous Israeli 400m hurdles national record had stood before Shiff broke it
- 2.21 m: Yonatan Kapitolnik’s winning high jump at the 2025 Grand Slam Jerusalem
- 1,500: spectators at the 2025 Grand Slam Jerusalem
- 26 to 29 countries: the international field growth from 2025 to 2026
Jerusalem’s Bid to Lead the Region’s Calendar
Even during a complex security period, we continued to bring the world’s top athletes to Jerusalem, out of the belief that sport connects people and builds bridges. We have invested hundreds of millions of shekels in advanced sports infrastructure, and the Grand Slam competition is another expression of Jerusalem’s growing status on the global sports map.
The quote is from Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, released by the Israel Athletics Association ahead of the meet. He tied the meet to hundreds of millions of shekels of municipal sports investment. Ami Baran, chairman of the Israel Athletics Association, said the participation of athletes from 29 countries ‘carries enormous significance’ and pointed to years of organizing work. Ze’ev Barzilai, marketing director at Eldan Transportation, called the 29-country field ‘a point of pride both for the State of Israel and for the city of Jerusalem.’
Beyond the Track
The athletics program is wrapped in a family fan zone inside the stadium grounds, with interactive athletics stations and activities for visitors. The 2025 edition included heats for children and youth aged U14 through U18 alongside the senior program. The format positions the Grand Slam as both a competitive meeting and a public-facing athletics showcase.
Eldan Transportation returns as main sponsor for the third straight year. The company’s “transparent studio” debuted at the 2025 edition and will again host live interviews with athletes from Israel and abroad. The studio sits inside the stadium expo area, giving spectators a direct view of the broadcast setup. Eldan’s marketing director has called the partnership a way to bring international visibility to the brand and the city. For organizers, the sponsor commitment underwrites the financial side of hosting a Continental Tour Silver meeting on home soil.
The Givat Ram stadium has held European Athletics age-group championships in 2022 and 2023, giving Jerusalem a track record as a host. Eldan’s continued sponsorship and the city’s infrastructure investment both point to an organizing committee planning to keep the meeting on the calendar. The 2026 edition adds live interviews at Eldan’s transparent studio, along with the family fan zone in the stadium bowl. Tickets for the evening program are listed on the Bimot website.
What the Jerusalem Stop Means for the Summer
Six weeks separate the Givat Ram starting gun from the European Championships in Birmingham. For athletes in the Continental Tour Silver field, the Jerusalem evening offers one last competitive read on home or near-home soil before the August push. The race is also a public checkpoint: times run in Israel will travel inside the World Athletics ranking tables that selectors consult.
The 2026 Grand Slam Jerusalem takes place Thursday, June 25, at the National Stadium in Givat Ram, with tickets available through the Bimot website. The field of 76 athletes from 29 countries lines up inside the Continental Tour Silver tier that the meeting has carried since 2024. Organizers have framed the third straight edition as part of a longer arc of international athletics events in Jerusalem. Results from Thursday will be read against the next tier on the World Athletics circuit, Continental Tour Gold, where qualifying windows are tighter and the global roster is smaller. For athletes with Birmingham in view, the Givat Ram evening is one data point inside a six-week qualifying window.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the 2026 Jerusalem Grand Slam take place?
The meet is scheduled for Thursday, June 25, 2026, at the National Stadium in Givat Ram, Jerusalem. The program runs through an evening session.
How many athletes and countries are competing?
Approximately 76 athletes from 29 countries are listed, including competitors from the United States, Canada, Brazil, France, Greece, Ukraine, Hungary, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ethiopia, and Uganda. National relay squads from Ukraine, Lithuania, and Poland will contest the 4×100-meter relay.
What tier of competition is the Grand Slam Jerusalem?
It is classified as a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meeting. The tier sits below Continental Tour Gold on the global circuit and carries World Athletics ranking points.
Which Israeli athletes are headlining the home roster?
The home roster is led by Blessing Afrifah, Omri Shiff, Yonatan Kapitolnik, Adva Cohen, Romi Tamir, Alina Drutman, and Mercy Afrifah, with Estelle Valanu, Menachem Chen, and Ishai Ifraimov also listed.
Why does the timing of the Jerusalem meet matter?
The June 25 date places the meeting roughly six weeks before the European Athletics Championships, which begin August 10 in Birmingham. Athletes use Jerusalem to chase qualifying standards and ranking points inside that window.
What happened at the 2025 Grand Slam Jerusalem?
Omri Shiff set an Israeli national record in the 400m hurdles at 49.82 seconds, breaking a 34-year-old mark. Yonatan Kapitolnik won the high jump at 2.21m. Noam Mamo took the 800m in 1:49.65. Around 1,500 spectators attended.
