Andre De Grasse qualifies 1st in season-best 20.09 for Olympic 200m semifinals

By Doug Harrison, CBC Sports

Andre De Grasse followed up his Olympic bronze performance in the 100 metres with a momentum-building run in the 200 qualifier on Tuesday.

The Markham, Ont., sprinter advanced to Wednesday's semifinals at 9 p.m. ET with a season-best 20.09 seconds to qualify first at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

• SCHEDULE & RESULTS: Track and field at Rio 2016
• VIDEO: De Grasse blazes way to 200m semifinals
• VIDEO: De Grasse: 'Coach said to take it easy'
• VIDEO: Bolt breezes to victory in his 200 heat
• Bolt wins 100m gold, De Grasse gets bronze

De Grasse will be joined by 100 gold medallist Usain Bolt of Jamaica, who cruised through his qualifying heat.

Other notables to qualify include Canadian Aaron Brown, American Justin Gatlin, Jamaica's Yohan Blake and LaShawn Merritt of the United States.

In less than three months, De Grasse has gone from finishing last against veterans Justin Gatlin, Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell at Eugene Diamond League to dipping below 10 seconds for the first time this season to beating Powell, a former world-record holder, to winning Olympic bronze in the 100 to posting the fastest time in qualifying in the 200 in Rio.

At last summer's Pan Am Games in Toronto, he won the sprint double by establishing a national record of 19.88 in the 200 to become the first Canadian ever man to run sub-10 seconds in the 100 and sub-20 seconds in the 200.

Bolt, coming off his gold-medal run in Sunday's 100, isn't showing any effects from a hamstring injury suffered in early July at the Jamaican Olympic trials. Bolt, who coasted to victory in his heat in 20.28, said in March he wanted to run sub-19 seconds in the 200 in Rio.

"I know how to run the 200," Bolt told reporters. "It's all about just reminding myself. Tomorrow, I'll show up with much better progress. I have to run fast, and so I'm looking forward to that."

Brown into semifinals

Brown qualified 11th, crossing the line in 20.23 in his heat with Ramil Guliyev of Turkey, but the latter was awarded second by thousandths of a second.

On June 11, the 24-year-old Brown ran 9.96 to set a personal best and became only the second Canadian man in 17 years to dip below the 10-second mark. He stopped the clock in 10.07 at the Canadian Olympic trials in July.

Fellow Canadian Brendon Rodney didn't qualify after running 20.34 to finish third in his heat, far off his personal best of 19.96, established at the Canadian Olympic trials in July in Edmonton, where the 24-year-old Hamilton native became the second Canadian in history to dip under the 20-second barrier.

Men's 1,500

Nathan Brannen will have the opportunity to erase a bad memory from 2012, a moment the Canadian middle distance runner called "the lowest point in my life," after the London Olympics.

The 33-year-old automatically qualified for Thursday night's semifinals in the men's 1,500 metres when he finished fourth in his heat in three minutes 47.07 seconds Tuesday morning.

Brannen, who is competing at his third Olympics, appeared well on his way to the final in London when he clipped the heel of Germany's Carsten Schlangen 850 metres into the semifinals and fell to the ground. With blood running down his leg, Brannen got up and finished the race 12th in 3:39.26.

A jury of appeal examined video of the race and it clearly showed Brannan making contact with Schlangen, ending his chance for reinstatement in the next round.

'Fitness-wise, I was on fire'

"It was the fittest I've ever been," Brannen, a native of Cambridge, Ont., told the Chronicle-Telegram newspaper in Elyria, Ohio in July. "I think I won nine out of the 10 races I ran that year leading up to the Olympics. Confidence-wise and fitness-wise I was on fire."

Fast forward four years and Brannen was named to the Canadian team for Rio on July 11. Needing a top-two finish at the Olympic trials in Edmonton, he was third in 3:56.11, behind Charles Philibert-Thiboutot (3:55.75) and Justyn Knight (3:56.00) but the Canadian selection committee gave him the third spot.

"My goal is to make the final and see what can happen from there," Brannen, who broke a bone in his foot last year and tore his left Achilles tendon in 2014, told the Chronicle-Telegram.

"I've been training for the last four years to make it back and go through replicating what I did [in London], without, obviously, the fall," he told the Cambridge Times in July. "I'm happy to be back four years later healthy."

Philibert-Thiboutot also qualified for the semifinals in 3:40.04.

Women's 100 hurdles

Canada qualified two hurdlers for Wednesday's semifinal at 7:45 p.m. ET, Phylicia George of Markham, Ont., and Nikkita Holder of Pickering, Ont.

George, 28, finished eighth overall in 12.83 seconds, not far off her personal best of 12.65 from the 2012 London Olympics, where she placed sixth. The 29-year-old Holder was 20th on Tuesday in a season-best 12.92.

Edmonton's Angela Whyte, a three-time Olympian, didn't qualify. The 36-year-old finished in a tie for 30th spot in 13.09.

Women's pole vault

Kelsie Ahbe of Toronto qualified for Friday's final at 7:30 p.m. ET, tying for the eighth and final spot with several others in a personal best of 4.55 metres.

Alysha Newman of London, Ont., and Anicka Newell of Scarborough, Ont., missed out on qualifying, finishing 17th (4.45) and 29th (4.15), respectively.

Women's 5,000

Andrea Seccafien of Guelph, Ont., and Calgary's Jessica O'Connoll failed to advance to Friday's final at 8:40 p.m. ET, placing 20th (15 minutes 30.22 seconds) and 26th (15:51.18), respectively.