De Grasse taking setback in stride
Sprinter focusing on positives after missing worlds
Instead of battling TORONTO Usain Bolt one final time, Andre De Grasse spent the world track and field championships playing tourist in London.
The 22-year-old attended the Arsenal-Chelsea soccer game at Wembley Stadium. He toured the London and Tower bridges. He caught a couple of movies — War for the Planet of the Apes and Girls Trip.
“It was the first time I actually got to do something in a city, because I’m always focused on track, and I never get a chance to really go out and see things, so it was my first time actually doing that at a championship,” he said. “I just tried to be happy, be positive, and find other things to do.”
And he watched the dramatic 100-metre final from his hotel room, and couldn’t help but think: What if?
De Grasse, who enjoyed a meteoric rise up the ranks before suffering his first significant injury, is home in Toronto for rehabilitation on his torn hamstring and said he’s resolved to come back better than ever.
“I guess everything happens for a reason,” De Grasse said. “You could say it was a humbling experience for me, just looking back and saying I accomplished a lot in the last couple of years. I wasn’t too upset with myself to say, ‘Hey I missed an important chapter in my career,’ because I know there’s going to be more championships.
“I’m young. So for me it’s all about bouncing back for 2018 and then get ready for the next world championships (in Doha in 2019) and Olympics in 2020.”
The Markham, Ont., sprinter was poised to capture as many as three medals earlier this month in London, in the 100 and 200 metres and the 4x100metre relay.
Instead, De Grasse suffered a hamstring injury in training and was forced to withdraw. It was only the first bit of bad news on a trip that completely unravelled for a Canadian team walloped by injuries and illness.
De Grasse had been gunning for Bolt and his 100-metre crown, but it was Americans Justin Gatlin and Christian Coleman who stole Bolt’s spotlight in his career finale.
“It was pretty shocking,” De Grasse said. “I enjoyed watching it. I wish I could’ve been in there, but it was still a great race.”
The three-time medallist from last summer’s Olympics said his recovery is on track.
“I’m jogging, a lot of isometric drills, high-knee drills, kind of just trying to get my hamstring strong again,” he said. “So a lot of gym workouts, nothing too complicated, about 30 minutes to an hour every day, working on my lower body, and then just two or three laps around the track.”
He plans to return to his training base in Phoenix in late September to gear up for a busy season that includes the Commonwealth Games in April (he plans to run one individual race and the relay), the NACAC championships in Toronto — which will feature teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean — and the Diamond League circuit.