Maybe the world’s subsequent dash star wasn’t so laborious to seek out in spite of everything.
He’s Andre De Grasse, the Canadian who ran his first dash in dishevelled basketball shorts and borrowed spikes, and now has an Olympic gold medal within the 200 metre.
De Grasse powered previous a pair of People — Kenny Bednarek and the favorite, Noah Lyles — to complete in 19.62 seconds and take one of many titles that Usain Bolt had owned for the final three Olympics.
It ends a string of shut requires the 26-year-old and fills out a medal assortment that was solely lacking a gold. De Grasse gained bronze 4 nights earlier within the 100 to go together with the third-place medal he took in Rio de Janeiro.
He additionally gained a silver within the 200 there, although his keep in Brazil is finest remembered for the time he had the audacity to mess with Bolt.
It was a semifinal race and the 2 have been far forward of the sphere and simply going to make the medal race. However De Grasse saved pushing. It pressured Bolt to kick issues again into overdrive.
Bolt gained the race however playfully wagged his finger at De Grasse. The second went viral, and Bolt insisted he wasn’t happy. He got here again to blow away De Grasse within the closing, by practically 1 / 4 second, however the champion advised the additional power didn’t assist in his futile quest to re-set his world document of 19.19.
Lesson discovered, and since Bolt left the scene, the world has been searching for somebody, anybody, to take his place within the marquee observe occasions.
Italian sprinter Marcell Jacobs got here from nowhere to win the 100, leaving De Grasse behind in what’s often thought-about his second-best distance.
And eventually, De Grasse has cashed in. It’s his first gold at a significant occasion after amassing two silvers and 6 bronzes at Olympics and world championships since 2015.
“It’s persistence,” mentioned Canadian decathlete Damian Warner, who frolicked close to the observe to observe his teammate win.
“He’s needed to go towards Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, all these powerful rivals. So it’s not like he’s simply choking or dropping within the closing. He’s dropping to some actually nice athletes.” This time, he beat some — most notably, Lyles, who has been on a troublesome highway to the Tokyo Olympics. He has overtly talked about his personal mental-health points and the way the pandemic disrupted all the things.
At one level, he regarded like he is perhaps heading for an try at a 100-200 double. However his 100 at Olympic trials was a large number, and his finest race of the season was the 200 closing in Eugene, Oregon.
Lyles made a mistake the evening earlier than within the semifinals, slowing down too far earlier than the road, getting edged out for the 2 automated spots, and being pressured to attend to see if his time would earn him a qualifying spot.
It value him within the closing. Pressured to start out in Lane 3, the place all the highest competitors races behind him, Lyles pushed out too shortly. He had the lead heading into the homestretch however had nothing extra to present.
“Sadly, I couldn’t see anyone and was operating for my life,” Lyles mentioned.
“I believed I used to be the one behind. I felt like I used to be the one chasing.” Nope. De Grasse was doing the chasing. And catching. And, lastly, successful. He’s the primary dash gold medalist for Canada since Donovan Bailey gained the 100 on the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Fairly an accomplishment for a one-time level guard who bought into observe on a whim. On the bus in highschool, he bumped right into a pal, who challenged him to come back out to the observe. De Grasse thought he might beat his buddy, so he went out in his basketball shorts, began from a standing place and completed in 10.9.
Olympic bronze medalist Tony Sharpe was sitting within the stands that day, noticed it and mentioned, “Who is that this man?” That was in 2012. Not a decade later, no one is asking anymore. AP
