Amidst a wild stretch of competition in Tokyo for the World Athletics Championships, Team Canada finished second, returning home with a silver medal. Canada’s quartet consisted of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse, all of whom were ready to defend the crown that they captured at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Canada’s recent track record has been filled with ups and downs on the professional stage. After setting a national record of 37.48 seconds in 2022, Canada was unable to make the final despite coming from a stellar previous year. All four men who competed at this year’s event in Tokyo have been running alongside each other for a decade. The same four who set the national record were the ones who brought silver home in their most recent outing.
Since 2015, this group has been representing Canada (with Blake joining in 2019) like no other relay team has before. De Grasse especially put Canadian sprinting on the map after his legendary performance in the 2016 Rio Olympics, where he secured three medals over the course of the games (silver men’s 200, bronze men’s 100 and bronze men’s relay). These wins meant more than just a piece of hardware, as this showed the rest of the world why Canada belongs in the conversation for the top track programs.
As for the rest of the podium, the United States finished on top with an impressive 37.29-second time, while the Netherlands showed out, posting a 37.81 time to secure bronze. Outside of Canada’s accomplishments, the Dutch are the story of the event, slowly climbing the ranks on both the women’s and men’s side for their relay.
Brown would go on to praise his team post-race, commenting on how proud he was of his brothers for their showing in Tokyo.
“I just want to say I’m so grateful to run with these guys because I never know what the team is going to look like in two years, the next world championships. Whether it’s us again or the new guys, we’re going to continue that legacy,” Brown said.
It was an unusual scene in Tokyo that night with runners facing some rainy weather that ultimately could have set teams back.
“I think that was our first time actually running in the rain, so different experience than usual. But we did our thing. We had a great time,” De Grasse said.
Overall, Canada finished with five medals at the event (three gold, one silver and one bronze), with help from the women’s side of the team.
Canada has much to celebrate after this event, as athletes from different sports also pitched in. Ethan Katzberg brought home gold in men’s hammer throw, while Camryn Rodgers did the same in the women’s event. Evan Dunfee earned gold in the men’s 35-kilometre race walk and Marco Arop took home bronze in the men’s 800 metre.
It’s now or never for this era of Canadian men’s track athletes. De Grasse still has some years left at the age of 33. Rodney and Brown are both reaching their twilight at 35 years old, while Blake is the youngest at 30. There’s no telling what this quartet can achieve in the near future, as they’ve proven that they won’t back down from anyone, no matter the stage.