Andre De Grasse is back and maybe better than ever
Canada's biggest track star looks like his old self at the world championships
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Andre De Grasse's comeback is complete
There were plenty of reasons to doubt Canada's biggest track star heading into the world championships. Most Canadians think of him as an Olympic hero for going toe-to-toe with the great Usain Bolt and coming away with three medals at the 2016 Games in Rio. But the next couple of years were rough. A hamstring injury forced De Grasse to pull out of the 2017 world championships, and continuing hammy problems spoiled his 2018 season too. He finally got healthy this year, but his results weren't anything to get too excited about. Even though he's still only 24, it was fair to wonder whether he'd peaked in Rio. Until this past weekend.
De Grasse's 100-metre bronze on Saturday was as good as gold. Yes, he lost to Americans Christian Coleman and Justin Gatlin. But almost everyone had those guys finishing 1-2. A bronze medal looked like about the best result De Grasse could hope for going in, and he almost did one better. He ran a personal-best 9.90 to finish only a hundredth of a second behind Gatlin — and a hundredth faster than the time that won him bronze in Rio. The message was clear: De Grasse is all the way back.
Next year's Olympics just got a lot more exciting. Coleman will likely be a heavy favourite in the 100. He looked even more untouchable than expected in the world-championship final, where his 9.76 made him the sixth-fastest man of all time. But Coleman has also been surrounded by doping-related controversy. He missed three drug tests and could have been suspended if he hadn't been let off on a technicality. Meanwhile, Gatlin will be 38 by the time the Tokyo Olympics roll around. Age (somehow) hasn't slowed him much yet, but it will at some point. Another American, Noah Lyles, is on the rise after posting a 9.86 a few months ago (only Coleman has run faster this year). He skipped the 100 at worlds to focus on the 200, where he's a huge favourite to win, but says he'll try for the double in Tokyo. So the competition will be stiff.
But if we've learned anything about De Grasse, it's that he comes up big in the biggest races. In his career, he's stepped on the track for a medal race in the world championships or the Olympics six times. He's won six medals.
He can make it 7-for-7 in the 200-metre final tomorrow. De Grasse easily won his semifinal heat today. It'll be tough to beat Lyles, who's looked as dominant in the 200 this year as Coleman has in the 100. But a medal is definitely in De Grasse's reach — especially with the way he's running right now. Canada's Aaron Brown also qualified for the final, but Brendon Rodney did not. The defending champ is Turkey's Ramil Guliyev. Watch the final live Tuesday at 3:40 p.m. ET here.
Moh Ahmed made Canadian history
His bronze in the men's 5,000 metres today is Canada's first-ever medal in a distance track race at the world championships. You may remember Ahmed almost winning an Olympic medal in 2016 when he finished fourth in this event. It looked like the same thing might happen today. Ahmed had the lead when the bell sounded for the final lap, but a bunch of runners quickly overtook him. He hung in there, though, and had enough kick down the final stretch to beat everyone except defending champ Muktar Edris and fellow Ethiopian Selemon Barega.
This was Canada's third medal of the meet. We already mentioned De Grasse in the 100, and race walker Evan Dunfee also won a bronze over the weekend.
Two other Canadians raced in finals today, but neither reached the podium. Justyn Knight finished 10th in the men's 5,000, and Genevieve Lalonde was 14th in the women's 3,000 steeplechase.
One other Canadian advanced in her event today: Crystal Emmanuel made the women's 200-metre semifinals. Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers' bid for a three-peat in that event is over after an injury kept her out of her heat.
Three Canadians were eliminated: Liz Gleadle failed to get past qualifying in the women's javelin, while Aiyanna-Brigitte Stiverne and Madeline Price couldn't advance in the women's 400 heats.
Tomorrow's highlights: Obviously, don't miss the men's 200 final at 3:40 p.m. ET. Right before that, at 3:10 p.m. ET, Canada's Marco Arop is in the men's 800 final. CBCSports.ca is live streaming the entire day's action and you can watch it starting at 9:30 a.m. ET here.
Quickly…
Qatar was maybe not the best choice to host the track and field worlds. The temperature in Doha is dangerously high. The women's marathon was held at midnight in an attempt to avoid the brutal heat and humidity, but 28 of the 68 starters still dropped out and several required medical attention (making it even more amazing that 41-year-old Canadian schoolteacher Lyndsay Tessier finished ninth and clinched an Olympic spot). Luckily, the heat hasn't been an issue for events held inside Doha's open-air stadium, thanks to a high-tech air-conditioning system. But no one's showing up. The stands have looked really empty, even during big events. It's almost as if awarding the biggest track and field meet of the year to a tiny, extremely hot country that's never really been interested in the sport was a bad idea. Oh, and Qatar's conduct during the bidding process is under criminal investigation in France after a corruption charge was brought in May.
Bianca Andreescu won her first match back — and scored a sweet invite. Returning from a short break after her historic U.S. Open win, Andreescu beat the world's 60th-ranked player 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 today in the opening round of the China Open. This is a very good tournament: it's what's known as a "Premier Mandatory" event on the women's tour, which is below only the Grand Slams and the WTA Finals in terms of prize money, rankings points and prestige. Andreescu won one of these back in March at Indian Wells. She's seeded No. 5 in China and her next opponent is Elise Mertens, who she defeated in the U.S. Open quarter-finals. More good Bianca news: she's officially clinched a spot in the WTA Finals at the end of October. Only the top eight players in the world are invited, and the winner could earn as much as $4.75 million US. That would be the biggest prize in the history of tennis. Read why some tennis experts think Andreescu has the tools to dominate the game here.
Kaillie Humphries is free. Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton finally agreed to give the two-time Olympic champion the release she wanted so she can go compete for the U.S. This was always the logical end game in this fight. No matter what the federation said publicly about wanting her back, there was too much bad blood after Humphries filed a harassment complaint against her former head coach and then sued for her release on the grounds that she didn't feel safe on the Canadian team anymore. In what it titled "A Letter to Canadians," BCS said it wanted to wait for an investigation into Humphries' accusations of verbal abuse and unfair treatment to be completed before dealing with her release request. That was done recently ("insufficient evidence of Kaillie's allegations" was found, according to BCS) and now Humphries is allowed to leave. In her own open letter, Humphries said she's "very happy this purgatory has ended" but "heartbroken" that she won't compete for Canada anymore. Read more about the latest in the Humphries saga here.
The baseball playoffs start tomorrow. First up are the one-game wild card playoffs in each league. The winner of each goes on to face the top team in its league in a best-of-five series. So whoever emerges from tomorrow's NL wild-card game between Milwaukee and Washington faces the L.A. Dodgers. The other NL series pits St. Louis vs. Atlanta. In the American League, the winner of Wednesday's wild-card game between Tampa Bay and Oakland plays Houston. The other series is Minnesota vs. the New York Yankees. Houston and the Dodgers are the betting favourites to meet in the World Series. We're guaranteed a new champion after last year's winner, Boston, missed the playoffs.
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