Brown, Boateng, De Grasse 1-2-3 in Canadian 100-metre final

OTTAWA — The country’s eight fastest sprinters crossed the line in one big blur, leaving the Terry Fox Stadium crowd in suspense and meet announcers lost over who was the actual winner.

Toronto’s Aaron Brown won the men’s 100-metre final at the Canadian track and field championships Friday night, while three-time Olympic medallist Andre De Grasse finished third, in a race so tight it took officials a couple of minutes to decide the winner.

Less than a tenth of a second separated the first six sprinters.

“It’s great, you can’t just mail it in and check off a win at the nationals,” Brown said. “You’ve got to come with your ‘A’ game. And anybody on any given day can step up and run fast, which is good for the sprint depth in Canada, with what we want to do and achieve in the relay pool.”

Meet announcers initially announced Bismark Boateng as the victor in 10.16 seconds, prompting a loud roar from the Toronto sprinter. But Brown also ran 10.16 seconds, forcing officials to go to the thousandths of a second to determine Brown as the winner.

De Grasse, who’s having an off year after last summer’s hamstring injury, crossed third in 10.20.

The 23-year-old from Markham, Ont., said his time was a positive result in an otherwise disappointing season.

“It was a good race,” De Grasse said. “I think if I had one or two more metres, I might have caught them, but definitely it’s a step in the right direction from the beginning of the season.”