Andre De Grasse eyes more sprint double success in Zurich, 1st Diamond League Trophy

“When the lights are shining brightest, he will shine,” CBC Sports activities analyst Donovan Bailey mentioned earlier than De Grasse pulled off the 100/200/4×100 medal podium triple for the second consecutive Olympics.

In his lone Diamond League Closing look, the big-race sprinter from Markham, Ont., positioned third in a 2019 season-best 19.87 seconds within the 200 at Brussels.

De Grasse will make his racing debut on the Letzigrund Stadium monitor in Thursday’s 100 at 2:38 p.m. ET in Zurich, the place the 26-year-old is amongst 23 Olympic champions in motion on the two-day Weltklasse Zürich meet.

Seven Diamond League Trophy winners have been declared Wednesday in Switzerland and obtained $30,000 US for his or her efficiency and an computerized berth into subsequent 12 months’s world championships, with 25 to comply with Thursday when CBC Sports activities will present dwell stream protection at 1 p.m.

Sprinter Aaron Brown of Toronto will be part of De Grasse within the 200 at 3:52 p.m. whereas Edmonton middle-distance runner Marco Arop and excessive jumper Django Lovett of Surrey, B.C., spherical out the Canadian contingent. Kate Van Buskirk of Brampton, Ont., paced the ladies’s 5,000 on Wednesday and can journey to New York Metropolis to race the fifth Avenue Mile on Sunday.

WATCH | CBC Sports activities’ Perdita Felicien sizes up Diamond League Closing:

Previewing the ultimate Diamond League occasion

Anastasia Bucsis is joined by world champion hurdler Perdita Felicien to interrupt down the ultimate Diamond League occasion of the season, with Canadians Andre De Grasse and Marco Arop trying to attain the rostrum. 3:20

De Grasse warmed up for the Diamond League Closing by topping a nine-man subject at a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold occasion final week in Poland, the place he crossed the road in 20.21 to win for the fifth time in eight races this season.

It was the Florida resident’s first 200 race since working a Canadian report 19.62 on Aug. 4 for his first and solely Olympic gold medal. De Grasse discovered one other gear to beat American Kenny Bednarek, who clocked a 19.68 private greatest and is scheduled to race Thursday.

WATCH | De Grasse blazes to Olympic 200-metre gold:

De Grasse blazes down backstretch to win 200m gold

Canadian Andre De Grasse completed robust to take residence the gold medal in a Canadian report time of 19.62 seconds. 7:09

“He is an excellent, good finisher,” CBC Sports activities analyst Dave Moorcroft mentioned of De Grasse. “His closing 20 or 30 metres, he decelerates lower than anybody else, it truly seems to be like he’s accelerating. It is a magical present to have.”

Fred Kerley, who beat bronze medallist De Grasse for Olympic silver within the 100, will run that occasion and the 200 on Thursday. On Sept. 3 in Brussels, Kerley was victorious within the 100 in 9.94 to turn into the primary man to win the 100, 200 (Aug. 28 in Paris) and 400 (Could 31, 2018 in Paris) on the Diamond League skilled circuit.

Elusive top-3 end

For Brown, Thursday’s 200 might be his fifteenth of the season. The three-time defending Canadian champion is recent off a 20.20 effort on the Assembly de Paris on Aug. 28 for his fourth top-three end on the distance in six Diamond League meets this season.

Feeling wholesome so far has been encouraging to Brown, who identified it has been a “taxing season” mentally making ready for the Olympics and returning to the Diamond League circuit solely two weeks later. 

The 29-year-old will most likely should run beneath 20 seconds to win Thursday — given Bednarek, De Grasse and Kerley have gone 19.79 or sooner this 12 months — one thing Brown has solely completed as soon as in every of his previous three full seasons.

Brown advised CBC Sports activities this week he is demonstrated the flexibility to run sub-20 constantly in coaching periods.

“It is a matter of discovering that leisure and rhythm within the race so it’s routine and does not require a lot effort and focus to do it for a single time,” he famous. “Working extra constantly beneath 20 [seconds] will take me to that subsequent stage I have been chasing.”

Bother within the inside lanes

A number of the greatest information the Florida resident obtained earlier than stepping on the monitor in Zurich was his lane task. Brown will race on the surface in Lane 8 after experiencing issues from Lane 4 within the Olympic closing.

“I did not transition effectively off the curve and into the straight [in Tokyo] after I felt [American star] Noah [Lyles] put stress on me from Lane 3,” mentioned Brown, who positioned sixth within the Olympic closing in 20.20. “I used to be in a tighter lane and for some purpose I’ve not been in a position to execute my transition within the max [sprint fly] from the within lanes versus the surface.

“My race sample felt and was executed loads smoother [from Lane 7] within the semi versus the ultimate.”

Brown has completed fourth in every of his three Diamond League Closing appearances in 2017 (Brussels), 2018 (Zurich) and 2019 in Brussels, the place he ran 20-flat.

The 22-year-old Arop returns to the monitor after skipping final week’s forty fifth version of the Allianz Memorial Van Damme meet in Brussels to relaxation and put together for his first Diamond League Closing within the 800 metres at 3:13 p.m.

Arop has flourished since he didn’t qualify for the ultimate at his Olympic debut in Tokyo. He earned his first two Diamond League wins, was third in Paris on Aug. 28 and hasn’t positioned decrease than third in any of his 5 races on the circuit in 2021.

WATCH | Arop claims 800-metre victory at Prefontaine Basic:

Edmonton’s Arop bests Olympic gold and silver medallists in Diamond League 800m race

Edmonton’s Marco Arop beat Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Emmanuel Kipkurui Korir and silver medallist Ferguson Cheruiyot Rotich within the males’s 800-metre race on the World Athletics Diamond League Prefontaine Basic in Eugene, Ore. 4:38

A standard front-runner, Arop has gained from the entrance of the pack and in comeback trend not too long ago towards 2020 Olympic medallists Ferguson Rotich and Emmanuel Korir of Kenya, each of whom are in Thursday’s race with Tokyo finalists Clayton Murphy of the USA and Amel Tuka of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

‘I consider he can win’

“You can not go to battle with the identical weapon and utilizing the identical methods you at all times use towards your opponents as a result of they will have the ability to determine you out and counter strike,” Arop’s coach, Chris Woods, advised CBC Sports activities not too long ago. “We at all times need to proceed so as to add a distinct means of profitable and maintain [other runners] guessing.

“I consider [Arop] may’ve been a medallist within the Olympics and I consider he can win a Diamond League [Trophy].”

Lovett, like Arop, is well-rested for his Diamond League Closing debut at 2:25 p.m., having not competed since his eighth-place end within the males’s Olympic excessive bounce closing on Aug. 1.

The 28-year-old misplaced his lead in Tokyo and dream of reaching the medal podium in his Olympic debut when he missed all three makes an attempt to clear 2.33 metres that may have tied a season and private greatest from his victory at Canadian trials in June.

Olympic medallists Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy and Maksim Nedasekau of Belarus, will once more attempt to cease Lovett’s bid for a title win, this time in Zurich. Every cleared 2.37 in Tokyo, with Tamberi sharing the gold medal with 2019 world champion Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar, whereas Nedasekau earned bronze after compiling extra missed makes an attempt than his opponents.

Thursday’s six-man subject additionally consists of Russia’s Ilya Ivanyuk, who was ninth (2.30) within the Olympic closing.

Diamond League Closing — Day 1 highlights:

• Ryan Crouser, who repeated as Olympic shot put champion in Tokyo and devoted the gold medal to his late grandfather, threw 22.67 metres to shatter the 22.60 meet report by Tomas Walsh of New Zealand from 2018. In June, Crouser set the world report of 23.37 on the U.S. Olympic trials.
• Mariya Lasitskene of Russia gained her fifth Diamond League Trophy, clearing 2.05 metres for a meet report and bettering her 2021 world-leading distance. South Africa’s Hestrie Cloete held the earlier meet mark of two.04 since 2004.
• Within the males’s 5,000, Berihu Aregawi of Ethiopia ran a personal-best 12:58.65 for his first Diamond League Trophy, defeating Bahrain’s Balew Birhanu (13:01.27). However it will not rely as an official PB for the reason that males’s race and girls’s 5,000, gained 90 minutes earlier by 2016 Olympic champ Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi, have been contested for the primary time exterior Letzigrund Stadium throughout a Diamond League Closing on a 560-metre lengthy non permanent monitor within the Sechselautenplatz city sq..

At instances, components of the monitor have been solely three lanes large, forcing individuals to jostle for place.

For extra tales concerning the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success tales throughout the Black group — try Being Black in Canada, a CBC undertaking Black Canadians might be happy with. You can read more stories here.