De Grasse’s quest for 1st Diamond League Trophy and other track and field storylines

The final time most Canadians noticed Andre De Grasse on the observe, he was placing the ending touches on a second consecutive three-medal efficiency on the Olympics.

It started in Tokyo with a personal-best 9.89 seconds for bronze within the 100 metres as De Grasse matched his Summer time Video games effort from 5 years earlier in Rio and have become the primary Canadian to win a number of Olympic medals within the occasion.

It ended with the Markham, Ont., sprinter incomes bronze within the 100 relay with Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney and Jerome Blake to change into Canada’s most adorned male Olympian. They not too long ago had the medal upgraded to silver after Nice Britain, which completed 1-A centesimal of a second behind Italy, was disqualified following CJ Ujah’s doping violation.

In between, De Grasse gained the primary gold medal of his Olympic profession and first by a Canadian within the 200 since 1928, setting a nationwide file time of 19.62. Blake was blown away at how De Grasse may run so quick after solely 4 200s earlier in 2021.

“He is like [retired sprinter] Usain Bolt or [NBA star] LeBron [James]. They by no means fear concerning the common season,” Blake, who will oppose world No. 2-ranked De Grasse and Brown within the 200 at Friday’s Diamond League season opener in Doha, Qatar, stated not too long ago between coaching periods in Florida. “They’re [all] championship gamers and that is once they come alive.

“That is the place you wish to thrive and carry out at your finest, in a championship setting. It is [about] the way you carry out when it issues most.”

Additionally in Friday’s subject is 2020 Olympic bronze medallist and reigning world champion Noah Lyles and fellow American Fred Kerley, who ran 19.80 on April 16 on the USATF Golden Video games, second solely this season to teammate Erriyon Knighton (19.49).

Whereas a few of his teammates and opponents raced indoors earlier this yr, together with the world championships in March, De Grasse stayed near his Jacksonville, Fla., dwelling, operating a 100, 200 and three relays.

“To see your countryman accomplish that properly forces you to enhance your sport and study from him. I need the three quickest races of my life to be at [outdoor world championships in July],” stated Blake, who set PBs within the 100 (10-flat) and 200 (20.04) earlier this spring. “It should be a enjoyable time after we get to race one another this yr.”

Stacked males’s 100m at Pre Traditional

De Grasse will proceed his Diamond League season Could 21 in Birmingham, England, the place he’ll run the 100 in preparation for his title defence on the Could 28 Prefontaine Traditional at Eugene, Ore., web site of this summer season’s worlds. It’s going to be a Tokyo rematch in opposition to reigning Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs and silver medallist Kerley, who clocked 9.92 final weekend at a Continental Tour meet in Nairobi.

WATCH | De Grasse runs wind-aided 9.74 seconds at 2021 Pre Traditional:

Andre De Grasse flies to Diamond League 100m race victory

Andre De Grasse of Markham, Ont., gained the lads’s 100-metre race Saturday on the World Athletics Diamond League Prefontaine Traditional observe meet with a wind-aided (wind: +2.9) time of 9.74 seconds. 5:39

The loaded subject can even characteristic 2020 Olympic finalist Ronnie Baker and his American teammates Christian Coleman, Kenny Bednarek and Lyles. Coleman, the previous world No. 1, gained the lads’s indoor 60 on the Millrose Video games on Jan. 29 after serving an 18-month suspension for breaching anti-doping whereabouts guidelines.

Athletes will compete for factors at 9 different stops crossing 4 continents in a bid to succeed in the Sept. 7-8 Diamond League Last in Zurich, the place they’ve the possibility to be topped champion and earn $30,000 US in prize cash.

Six Diamond League champions might be decided at a avenue occasion, with 26 different disciplines being held the next day at Letzigrund Stadium in Switzerland.

Polish meet added to schedule

The Kamila Skolimowska Memorial assembly in Chorzow, Poland on Aug. 6 is the brand new cease on the circuit, changing occasions in Shanghai and Shenzhn, which had been cancelled not too long ago resulting from strict journey restrictions and quarantine necessities in China.

Two meets in China had been additionally cancelled final yr for related causes.

Canada’s Trophy drought

As dominant as Andre De Grasse has been on the Olympics and different main championships, the sprinter continues to be looking for his first Diamond League Trophy.

On Sept. 16, 2011, six-foot-four, 310-pound shot putter Dylan Armstrong of Kamloops, B.C., gained $40,000 US and a four-carat diamond-encrusted trophy in Brussels, the newest Canadian to win a Diamond League title.

The earlier yr, one-time world No. 1 hurdler Priscilla Lopes-Schliep of Whitby, Ont., turned Canada’s inaugural Diamond League champion when the 2008 Olympic bronze medallist stopped the clock in 12.54 seconds within the girls’s 100-metre occasion on the Memorial Van Damme competitors in Belgium the day after her twenty eighth birthday.

Final September, De Grasse positioned second within the 100 and 200 on the Diamond League Last in Zurich. In 2019, he posted a season-best 19.87 seconds within the 200 to earn bronze on the Diamond League Last. Teammate Aaron Brown was fourth, as he was in 2017, 2018 and 2021.

WATCH | De Grasse practically upends Bednarek in 200m Diamond League Last:

Kenneth Bednarek edges Andre De Grasse to win Diamond League 200m title

American Kenneth Bednarek posted a time of 19.70 seconds to win the 200-metre Diamond League title, forward of Andre De Grasse of Markham, Ont., who completed second with a time of 19.72 seconds on the Diamond League last in Zurich, Switzerland. Toronto’s Aaron Brown completed fourth. 4:35

DeBues-Stafford ‘dialed in’ in B.C.

Center-distance runner Gabriela DeBues-Stafford was in file type to start out 2022 however now’s having to regulate to a brand new coach and coaching setting. She left famend coach Jerry Schumacher and the Bowerman Observe Membership in Portland, Ore., after 18 months to work with Trent and Hilary Stellingwerff in Victoria.

DeBues-Stafford, who positioned fifth within the girls’s Olympic 1,500 in Tokyo, stated the transfer three months earlier than worlds was mandatory “for the sake of my athletic efficiency and psychological well being.”

The 26-year-old DeBues-Stafford, who holds seven Canadian information between indoor and out of doors observe, was motivated to depart Bowerman to attenuate any unfavorable stress after the doping ban of her former Portland coaching accomplice Shelby Houlihan and the latter’s continued presence across the group turned an excessive amount of to deal with.

“The great stress of competitors and executing an necessary exercise will show you how to carry out on the highest stage,” DeBues-Stafford stated in a latest interview with CBC Sports activities’ Brenda Irving. “It is a good setting [in B.C.] to ensure I am dialed in and never distracted by any noise round coaching.”

Canadian file chase

Marco Arop made his Diamond League Last debut in 2021, ending fourth within the males’s 800 metres a month after lacking the ultimate at his Olympic debut. Ranked third on the earth, the 23-year-old will attempt to redeem himself at his second world championships after putting seventh within the 2019 last.

The Edmonton native, who gained two Diamond League races post-Olympics, can even try to interrupt Brandon McBride’s Canadian file after coming inside 6-100ths of a second in 1:43.26 at Diamond League Monaco final July. Doha might be his out of doors season debut within the 800 after clocking a 46.10 PB in a 400 race at Starkville, Miss., the place he trains.

WATCH | Arop narrowly misses Canadian file in Stockholm:

Marco Arop holds on for males’s 800m 2nd in Stockholm

Kenya’s Ferguson Cheruiyot Rotich (1:43.84) simply squeaked previous the Canadian who posted a private finest 1:44.00 flat. 3:22

6.20 metres and counting for Duplantis

On the worldwide entrance, Sweden’s Armand “Mondo” Duplantis continues to boost the bar, actually, in males’s pole vault. Two weeks after clearing a brand new world file peak indoors of 6.19 metres in March, he reached 6.20 to win gold on the world indoor championships in Belgrade, Serbia.

That mark additionally stands because the out of doors world mark as World Athletics rules state world information could be set in a facility “with or with out a roof.”

The reigning Olympic champion claimed his first Diamond League Trophy final season and might be eyeing a second profession Diamond League victory in Doha after prevailing in September 2020 with a 5.82 clearance.

Crouser’s shot put dominance

Will probably be fascinating to observe what American Ryan Crouser can do for an encore after his 2021 shot put season rated as one of many best in historical past.

It started with a U.S. and world file effort of twenty-two.82 metres, topping Randy Barnes’ 22.66 indoor mark from 1989. Barnes’ 1990 out of doors world file of 23.12 additionally fell final yr, courtesy Crouser (23.37), on the Olympic trials at Hayward Discipline in Eugene, Ore.

A month later, the six-foot-seven, 320-pound Crouser threw an Olympic file 22.83 to repeat as champion and went on to win his first Diamond League Trophy in 5 makes an attempt.

Crouser will return to Eugene later this month on the Prefontaine Traditional to resume his rivalry with fellow American Joe Kovacs and Tom Walsh of New Zealand. 

For extra tales concerning the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success tales throughout the Black group — take a look at Being Black in Canada, a CBC undertaking Black Canadians could be pleased with. You possibly can learn extra tales right here.