Brown anchors Canada to relay gold
When Canada’s Aaron Brown took the baton a step behind Jaquone Hoyte of Barbados on Sunday and set his sights on the finish line, one thought went through his mind.
“I was thinking, ‘I’m not going to lose twice. I’m going to get this guy, if it kills me,’ ” Brown said laughing.
The 26-year-old from Toronto anchored Canada to a victory in the men’s 4x100 metre relay, the highlight on the final day of the NACAC Championships.
The victory came an hour after Brown slowed up over the final few metres of the 200, losing to Kyle Greux of Trinidad and Tobago.
Bismark Boateng, Jerome Blake, Mobolade Ajomale and Brown, who powered past Hoyte over the final 40 metres, won relay gold in 38.56 seconds, delighting the crowd at the University of Toronto’s sun-drenched Varsity Stadium.
Barbados was second in 38.69.
With three-time Olympic medallist Andre De Grasse sidelined with a hamstring injury, Brown was Canada’s headliner in the men’s sprints, and a favourite to win gold in the 200 after dipping below the 20-second barrier for the first time earlier this season.
But Greux pulled ahead of the Canadian over the final 20 metres to win in 20.11.
Brown clocked 20.20 for the silver.
“It’s bittersweet. I’m not going to say I’m happy with that, it would be disingenuous, I wanted to win for sure in front of the home crowd,” Brown said.
“The good thing is, it gives me more motivation. I can’t ever be complacent, on any given day people can come up and shock people.”
Brown, who joined De Grasse as the only Canadians in history to run sub-10 seconds in the 100 metres and sub-20 seconds in the 200, said it was tough shrugging off the 200 loss in the short time before the relay.
But a pep talk from Canadian head coach Glenroy Gilbert helped.
“He just told me to ‘Shake it off, be disappointed after. You’ve been running well all year, so don’t beat yourself up too much, these things happen. You’ll be better in this relay,’ ” said Brown, who will head back to Europe to continue the Diamond League season.
Crystal Emmanuel of Toronto raced to silver in the women’s 200 in 22.67. Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson won gold in 22.64.
Emmanuel was third a day earlier in the women’s 100.
She also had a quick turnaround. She ran the second leg on Canada’s women’s 4x100 relay team that won bronze an hour later.
In other events on Sunday, 2015 world champ Shawn Barber cleared 5.40 metres to finish second in a threeman pole vault contest.
American Cole Houston took gold with 5.45.
Canada took bronze in both the 1,500 metre events, Gabriella Stafford crossing third in the women’s race and Charles Philibert-Thiboutot taking third in the men’s.