Canada could have a big final weekend at the track and field worlds
Olympic champs Warner, De Grasse among the Canadians with medal hopes
This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports' daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what's happening in sports by subscribing here.
All four of Canada's individual track and field medallists from the Tokyo Olympics have opportunities to win medals this weekend at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon. Plus, a talented youngster who struggled in Tokyo looks ready to make a run at the podium. Here are the Canadians to watch on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday as the worlds come to a close:
Andre De Grasse (men's 4x100m relay)
By winning gold in the 200m and bronze in the 100m at the Tokyo Olympics, De Grasse extended his medal run in individual events at major championships to an incredible seven in a row. The streak ended last weekend when the 27-year-old, who was coming off a bout with COVID-19, failed to advance past the semifinals of the 100m at worlds. De Grasse then skipped his best race, the 200m, in order to rest up for the 4x100, which begins with the heats tonight at 9:05 p.m. ET.
Canada's lineup tonight will be the same as the one that took Olympic bronze (later upgraded to silver) last summer: Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and De Grasse. The final is Saturday at 10:50 p.m. ET.
Despite 100m champion Fred Kerley being out with a leg injury suffered in the 200m semifinals, the United States will be tough to beat because of its unmatched depth. Marvin Bracy and Trayvon Bromell took silver and bronze in the 100m last weekend, and 2019 world champ Christian Coleman was sixth. 200m gold medallist Noah Lyles and bronze winner Erriyon Knighton are also candidates to run the 4x100 relay.
Canada also has a team in the women's 4x100m heats at 8:40 p.m. ET, but it's not considered a medal contender.
Marco Arop (men's 800m)
Heading into this meet, the knock on the powerfully built 23-year-old was that maybe his body and mind were not quite attuned to the rigors of the major championships. Arop has won three times on the Diamond League circuit, where the races are one-offs, but he sputtered out in the second round at the Olympics last summer.
Arop answered that criticism in emphatic fashion last night, running a tactically sound semifinal in which he seemed to get stronger as the race went on. Arop didn't win his semi — African champion Slimane Moula overtook him at the end with a flailing finishing kick that seemed to require every ounce of his energy — but the Canadian was in full command of the race as he secured the top-two finish needed to advance to the final on Saturday at 9:10 p.m. ET. Arop's competition as he seeks his first major-championship medal will include reigning Olympic champ Emmanuel Korir of Kenya. Read more about Arop's impressive semifinal effort and watch it below.
WATCH | Canada's Marco Arop races into 800m final:
Moh Ahmed (men's 5,000m)
Expected to contend for his third consecutive major-championship podium in the 5,000 after taking bronze at the 2019 worlds and silver at the Tokyo Olympics, Ahmed had to work for a spot in the final. The top five in each heat automatically advance, and the Canadian finished fifth last night — just a millisecond ahead of the sixth-place runner. Ahmed's time of 13:15.17 would have earned him a wild card anyway, but still: it was an unexpectedly difficult test. "The game has changed," Ahmed said. "Everybody is fit. Everybody is good right now."
The final on Sunday at 9:05 p.m. ET features three gold medallists from the Tokyo Olympics. Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei won the 5,000 there and claimed his second consecutive world title in the 10,000 last weekend (Ahmed finished sixth in that event). Ethiopia's Selemon Barega won the 10,000 in Tokyo and Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen took the 1,500.
Damian Warner (decathlon)
The Olympic champion's attempt to capture his first world title finally begins Saturday, when the first five legs of the decathlon take place. Action starts with the 100m at 12:50 p.m. ET and ends with the 400m at 9:55 p.m. ET. The final five legs on Sunday begin with the 110m hurdles at 12:35 p.m. ET and close with the 1,500m at 10:20 p.m. ET.
Warner, 32, has won just about every decathlon title you can think of — Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Pan Am Games (twice) and the prestigious Hypo Meeting in Austria (a record seven times). He added a world indoor crown in the seven-event heptathlon this year. But he's still looking for that elusive decathlon world title after taking silver in 2015 and his second bronze in '19. Learn what makes Warner such a good decathlete by watching this video. Read about the two high-school English teachers who helped mold Warner into an Olympic champion in this story by CBC Sports' Devin Heroux.
Evan Dunfee (men's 35km race walk)
Dunfee won bronze in the men's 50km race walk at both the 2019 world championships and last year's Olympics. But, despite the Canadian's passionate lobbying, his favourite event has been dropped from the program, leaving Dunfee with the shorter 35km race on Sunday at 9:15 a.m. ET. He finished seventh in the 35K at the world race walking team championships in March.
Meanwhile, the 31-year-old is already thinking about life after athletics. Dunfee is running for city council this fall in his hometown of Richmond, B.C.
Other stuff to know:
*Canada's Liz Gleadle is in the women's javelin final tonight at 9:20 p.m. ET. She launched the seventh-best throw overall in qualifying.
*Canada's Lindsey Butterworth will run in the first heat of the women's 800m semifinals at 9:35 p.m. ET.
*Last night's 200m finals were electrifying. Jamaica's Shericka Jackson won the women's gold by running the second-fastest time ever — 21.45 seconds, trailing only Florence Griffith-Joyner's mythical 21.34 at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Then, defending champ Noah Lyles led a U.S. sweep of the men's podium by laying down a 19.31 that broke Michael Johnson's American record from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and made Lyles the third-fastest 200m runner of all time, behind Jamaica's Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake. Kenny Bednarek took silver and 18-year-old phenom Erriyon Knighton got the bronze. Watch the men's race here and the women's here.
How to watch:
CBC Sports' exclusive live coverage of the world championships is on now and continues every day through the conclusion of the meet on Sunday. Events are being shown live on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and the free CBC Gem streaming service, and there will be weekend broadcasts on the CBC TV network. Check the full streaming and broadcast schedule here for details.
CBC Gem is also carrying a live daily primetime show focusing on coverage of the day's events with broadcasters Andi Petrillo, Mark Lee, Kate Van Buskirk, Michael Smith and Scott Russell trackside. It's preceded by a daily 30-minute digital show hosted by Olympian Anastasia Bucsis with reporting from Devin Heroux, who's on the ground in Eugene. That show is available on CBC Gem, CBCSports.ca and the CBC Olympics Twitter, Facebook and YouTube feeds.
