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TOKYO — Andre de Grasse of Canada gained the Olympic gold medal within the 200-meter race 5 years after ending second to Usain Bolt.
De Grasse gained in a nationwide file time of 19.62 seconds, holding off two Individuals for the medals Wednesday. Kenneth Bednarek gained silver in a private finest 19.68 seconds and 2019 world champion Noah Lyles took bronze in 19.74.
Hillsborough Excessive’s Erriyon Knighton, the youngest member of the U.S. males’s observe workforce at 17, positioned fourth in 19.93. Knighton, the youngest male athlete to characterize the USA in observe on the Olympics since Jim Ryun in 1964, had damaged Bolt’s under-18 youth file earlier in the summertime.
De Grasse’s win ends a string of shut requires the 26-year-old and fills out a medal assortment that was solely lacking a gold. He gained bronze 4 nights earlier within the 100 to go together with the third-place medal he took in Rio de Janeiro, as effectively.
He additionally gained a silver within the 200 there, although his keep in Brazil is finest remembered for the time he had the audacity to mess with Bolt.
It was a semifinal race and the 2 have been far forward of the sphere and simply going to make the medal race. However De Grasse saved pushing. It pressured Bolt to kick issues again into overdrive.
Bolt gained the race however playfully wagged his finger at De Grasse. The second went viral, and Bolt insisted he wasn’t happy. He got here again to blow away De Grasse within the remaining, by practically 1 / 4 second, however the champion recommended the additional power didn’t assist in his futile quest to re-set his world file of 19.19.
It’s De Grasse’s first gold at a serious occasion after amassing two silvers and 6 bronzes at Olympics and world championships since 2015.
“It’s persistence,” stated Canadian decathlete Damian Warner, who frolicked close to the observe to look at his teammate win. “He’s needed to go towards Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, all these powerful rivals. So it’s not like he’s simply choking or shedding within the remaining. He’s shedding to some actually nice athletes.”
This time, he beat some — most notably, Lyles, who has been on a troublesome highway to the Tokyo Olympics. He has overtly talked about his personal mental-health points and the way the pandemic disrupted all the things.
At one level, Lyles appeared like he is perhaps heading for an try at a 100-200 double. However his 100 at Olympic trials was a large number, and his finest race of the season was the 200 remaining in Eugene, Ore.
Lyles made a mistake the evening earlier than within the Olympic semifinals, slowing down too far earlier than the road, getting edged out for the 2 computerized spots, and being pressured to attend to see if his time would earn him a qualifying spot. It value him within the remaining. Pressured to begin in Lane 3, the place all the highest competitors races behind him, Lyles pushed out too shortly. He had the lead heading into the homestretch however had nothing extra to offer.
“Sadly, I couldn’t see anyone and was operating for my life,” Lyles stated. “I assumed I used to be the one behind. I felt like I used to be the one chasing.”
Nope. De Grasse was doing the chasing. And catching. And, lastly, successful. He’s the primary dash gold medalist for Canada since Donovan Bailey gained the 100 on the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Fairly an accomplishment for a one-time level guard who obtained into observe on a whim. On the bus in highschool, he bumped right into a good friend, who challenged him to come back out to the observe. De Grasse thought he might beat his buddy, so he went out in his basketball shorts, began from a standing place and completed in 10.9.
Olympic bronze medalist Tony Sharpe was sitting within the stands that day, noticed it and stated, “Who is that this man?”
That was in 2012. Not a decade later, no one is asking anymore.
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