(Sports news) It’s been twenty-six years since Robert Esmie, Glenroy Gilbert, Bruny Surin and Donovan Bailey captured gold for Canada in the men's 4×100-metre relay in Georgia at the 1996 Olympics. Fast forward to present day and another Canadian quartet of runners have repeated the same feat but this time at Eugene. With an American crowd going crazy for the home team who were the pre race favourite team at the World Athletics Championships, Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse had other things on their mind as they ran the race of their lives to win gold for Canada.
The time of 37.48 seconds is the fastest in the world this season and it is also a new Canadian record. The United States won silver with a time of 37.55, while Great Britain won bronze with a time of 37.83. Canada's Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse topped the men's 4x100m podium at the 2022 World Athletics Championships and it's their second time that the Canadian men's relay team has won gold in American. It also marked the sixth time Canadian men have won a relay medal at the World Championships, where they had previously won three gold and three bronze. The fans at Hayward Field were stunned to see 200m Olympic Champion De Grasse outrun America’s Marvin Bracy to get to the finish line first as De Grasse threw his hands in the air in celebration when he crossed the line. He subsequently finished the last 100m in a time of 8.79. His effort is even more remarkable considering he had COVID-19 just a month ago and chose to sit out the 200m event because of lack of fitness.
Blake, who started the race, is somewhat new to the team as he ran an 8.86 to keep Canada out front. Then Rodney, who's the corner specialist, rounded the bend with speed before De Grasse brought it home for Canada, outrunning Bracy. Canada’s head coach Glenroy Gilbert who was part of that deadly 90s Canadian dream team that won two world titles and a world bronze, as well as taking an unbelievable Olympic gold. Blake who’s first major contribution was at the Olympics when they captured silver in Tokyo last summer at the Olympics. Canadian quartet of Brown, Blake, Rodney, De Grasse advanced to 4x100m relay final with the second fastest time but in the final they brought out their a game.
"It feels good. Aaron just said listen for me this time. I got out as hard as I could and when I got the baton I went, that feels good,". Glenroy told us in our meeting to focus on the checkmark. Go to the middle of the zone as quickly as possible. I was running with a smile on my face at that point." We've been working on the spacing. As soon as I saw Jerome go over that tape I was getting ready. Just a great day.Chemistry is everything. We worked hard practising. My job here at these worlds was the relays. Now we have the whole collection." Blake said
"In my opinion I think they're a stronger team than what we were. They're not just 100-metre guys, they're 200-metre guys too. Their capacity is much higher. We were primarily 100-metre sprinters,I'm very proud to work with them and put forth the knowledge I have from over the years. They've made it easy." Gilbert said
"A lot of it is fundamentals and chemistry. All of these guys are talented. If they adhere to fundamentals under pressure they'll be successful. And the chemistry these guys have is unmistakable," he added
"It means everything. We've been talking about this for a few years now. Last year at the Olympics. It feels good to get it here. A lot of Canadian fans here so it almost feels like home soil. It feels great to end it like this after a rough start. To do it with these guys. It's an awesome feeling.I trusted these guys. We had the right spacing. I love these guys and I'm so proud," he said. "I worked so hard for this championship and to end it off like this is icing on the cake. I'm so proud of these guys." " De Grasse said
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