Brown aims to knock off De Grasse

OTTAWA — No question, Andre De Grasse will be the star of the show as the Canadian Track and Field Championships wrap up Sunday.

Yet Aaron Brown will have his say — and more than a little redemption on his mind — when De Grasse aims to add the national 200-metre title to the 100-metre crown he claimed on Friday.

Brown, who teamed up with De Grasse, Brendon Rodney and Akeem Haynes on Canada’s 4x100 bronze medal-winning relay squad at the Rio Olympics last summer, was the quickest qualifier out of Saturday’s 200 semifinals at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility.

Brown won his heat in 20.31 seconds, finishing ahead of De Grasse’s 20.44 and Rodney’s 20.45.

Confidence comes from that time. And motivation comes from the fact Brown was disqualified for a false start in Friday’s 100-metre semifinal, eliminating any shot he had at taking on De Grasse in the sprint.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect to run that fast,” Brown said of his blistering pace. “I just wanted to qualify (for the final). But I made sure that I didn’t false start, that I waited for that (expletive deleted) gun.”

Brown lost an appeal of the false start decision but he turned the page in order to focus properly on the 200.

Now, he’s full of optimism about Sunday’s race.

“I’ve got to do the same thing, just be professional.”

Rodney shouldn’t be counted out of the 200 metre equation, either. Rodney and De Grasse are the only two Canadians to have broken the 20-second barrier.

Rodney won the 2016 national title in Edmonton with a then Canadian record time of 19.96, ahead of Brown and De Grasse, who came in at 20.32.

De Grasse smashed Rodney’s record with the 19.80 posting that allowed him to claim the Olympic silver behind Jamaica’s Usain Bolt. Brown’s career best is 20.23. Like De Grasse on the men’s side, Crystal Emmanuel is also looking to complete the 100-200 metre sweep in the women’s competition.

Emmanuel, the class of the field with a 22.99 posting in the semifinals on Saturday, has a shot at breaking the 34-year-old Canadian record of 22.62 held by Marita Payne .