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PARIS — Canada shocked the athletics world on Friday, blazing to victory in the Olympic men’s 4×100-metre relay at a packed and rainy Stade de France.
The veteran team of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse went round the iconic purple track in 37.50 seconds. South Africa was second for silver in 37.57, Great Britain third for bronze in 37.61. The defending Olympic champs from Italy were fourth, .07 seconds off the podium.
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“It feels pretty amazing,” De Grasse told reporters after the race. “To be out with these guys, my brothers, I’ve been with them since the beginning of time, so it’s amazing.
“We talked about this moment for years. It feels good to bring it to fruition. I’m super grateful.”
This is the same Canadian team that won the 2022 world championship in Eugene, Ore., in a world-leading time of 37.48 seconds. And this race serves as sweet redemption for Brown, Blake and Rodney, who failed to advance out of the first round at the 2023 world championships.
Bolade Ajomale ran the final leg for that team.
On Friday, the highly favoured American team of Christian Coleman, Kenny Bednarek, Kyree King and Fred Kerley was disqualified for a baton pass out of the zone on the back straightaway. Bednarek and King fumbled it badly.
“We’re all human beings too and we’ve been through ups and downs in life — this is another of those times,” Coleman told reporters. “This is a part of the sport. This is a risk-reward type of thing. We do it on the biggest stage.”
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Brown led off for Canada and it did not start well, as they were lagging back in sixth place as he handed off. Blake moved them into fourth place before passing the baton to Rodney, and he gained another spot on the field before handing off to De Grasse.
Though earlier hampered by an inflamed hamstring, De Grasse held off a hard-charging Akani Simbine of South Africa, who posted the fastest final leg time at an impressive 8.78 seconds. De Grasse’s final leg was clocked in 8.89 seconds.
“(Individual events) didn’t go our way but when we come together we’re a real strong team,” Brown told reporters. “You can never count us out, we feel great.”
The Canadian team finished third in their heat on Thursday, so they ended up in Lane 9 for Friday’s race. This was apparently not all bad.
“Lane 9 was probably the perfect lane,” Rodney said. “We’re all kind of tall, so we didn’t have to worry about anybody in Lane 9. For us, we just focus on ourselves and just get to run.”
dbarnes@postmedia.com
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