De Grasse keeps Olympic title defence alive in 200-metre dash
Canadian sprinter Andre De Grasse has kept his Olympic title defence alive after advancing to the semi-finals of the men’s 200-metre dash
The 29-year-old came second in his round one heat earlier today as he clocked in a time of 20.30 seconds. The only person who ran faster than De Grasse in his heat was newly-minted 100-metre dash Olympic champion, Noah Lyles who ran a time of 20.19 seconds.
As De Grasse finished in the top three of his heat, he has now automatically qualified for the semi-finals of the event, which are set to take place on Wednesday.
Athlétisme 👟🎽 : le sextuple médaillé olympique, Andre De Grasse 🇨🇦, réussit un temps de 20,30 s au 200 m. Il passe en demi-finale!@Mic_Chabot @De6rasse @athleticscanada #paris2024 #rcsports pic.twitter.com/fFhqsdn86W
— Radio-Canada Sports (@RC_Sports) August 5, 2024
The fastest time of all the heats came from American Kenneth Bednarak, who finished first in the fourth heat with a time of 19.96 seconds. Overall, De Grasse finished with the 14th-fastest time of the 43 runners who participated in the opening round.
De Grasse is looking to defend the Olympic title that he won in this event back at the Tokyo 2020 Games. His winning time that time around was 19.62 seconds and beat out both Bednarak and Lyles.
He will have to channel a similar effort to get close to a podium finish this year. So far this season, De Grasse has a season-best time of 19.98 seconds, so there is plenty of time to be made up if he wants to get close to his 2022 performance again.
This comes after De Grasse failed to medal in the men’s 100-metre dash yesterday for the first time in his Olympic career.
Though he was the only Canadian to automatically qualify for the semi-finals in the 200-metre dash, he was not the fastest. Brendon Rodney ran a faster race, finishing with a nearly identical time as De Grasse in the third heat, coming up .291 thousandths of a second faster.
Rodney, however, came in fourth place in his heat and will have to place well in tomorrow’s repechage round if he wants a chance to race in the semi-finals. The same can be said for Canadian Aaron Brown, who came fourth in the fifth heat with a time of 20.36 seconds.
It’s going to be tough sledding for the Canadians to get back on the podium in this event, but the dream will live on into Wednesday’s semi-finals.