Andre De Grasse leads Canada to men’s 4x100m gold at world championships
Posted July 23, 2022 10:04 pm.
Last Updated July 23, 2022 10:46 pm.
The Canadian men’s 4×100-metre relay team is golden at the world track and field championships.
Six-time Olympic medallist Andre De Grasse anchored a team of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake and Brendon Rodney to victory on Saturday in a time of 37.48 seconds, the fastest in the world this season.
The gold was Canada’s third medal of the world championships.
The Americans took silver in 37.55, while Great Britain finished third (37.83).
4x100m RELAY – GOLD FOR CANADA ????????????
Perfect exchanges. De Grasse sees them home.
Dragons are slayed ????
— Athletics Canada (@AthleticsCanada) July 24, 2022
It was a small measure of redemption for De Grasse, who failed to qualify for the men’s 100-metre final a week ago and passed on the 200-metre event four days ago. The 27-year-old six-time Olympic medallist was coming off a foot injury and two separate bouts of COVID-19 heading into the championships.
The victory comes after some near misses by Canada’s team. De Grasse led the Canadians to silver at last summer’s Tokyo Olympics and bronze in Rio in 2016, plus bronze at the 2015 worlds in Beijing. Canada didn’t make the final at the last worlds in 2019 in Doha.
Led by Donovan Bailey, Canada won 4×100 gold at the 1995 and 1997 world championships. That team included Glenroy Gilbert, who is now Athletics Canada’s head coach.
Decathlon disappointment
Damian Warner’s quest for a world decathlon title is over.
The 32-year-old from London, Ont., suffered an apparent hamstring injury about 120 metres into the 400 on Saturday, the final event of Day 1.
Canada’s Olympic champion was the leader through the first four events of the day.
Warner has never won world decathlon gold. He has a silver and two bronze.
At last summer’s Tokyo Olympics, Warner shattered his Canadian record and became one of just four decathletes in history to top the 9,000-point barrier.
Second ever Canadian medal
Marco Arop earned his first world championship medal with a bronze in the men’s 800-metre final on Saturday at the world track and field championships.
The Edmonton native finished with a time of one minute 44.28 seconds.
Kenya’s Emmanuel Korir won gold with a season-best performance of 1:43.71. Algerian Djamel Sedjati grabbed silver crossing the line in 1:44.14.
The 23-year-old Arop is just the second Canadian man to ever medal in the race at worlds. Gary Reed won silver in 2007 in Osaka, Japan.
Arop ran the third-fastest time in the world this season three weeks ago at the Pre World Invitational Championships.
