Canada’s worlds turned upside down
Injury derailed De Grasse scrapping last shot at Bolt, medal shutout still stings
When Usain Bolt stepped on to the track at the world athletics championships in London this past summer, he was greeted by a packed house and television cameras ready to carry the event to the far reaches of the globe.
The world’s greatest sprinter running his final competitive races made for the track event of 2017.
Unfortunately for Canadian fans, Canada’s sprint star Andre De Grasse watched that sporting moment the same way they did — on TV.
Just days before the August championships, De Grasse had expected to be in a lane beside Bolt at London Stadium and there was serious debate in track circles about the possibility that the runner from Markham could beat the great man before he retired.
A hamstring injury in training put an end to those dreams for De Grasse and set the early tone for what would be an incredibly disappointing worlds for much of the national track and field team.
The Canadians went in exuding confidence with head coach Glenroy Gilbert talking about a goal of at least eight medals. By the time they’d finished competing 10 days later — without winning a single medal — Gilbert was talking about how great it was to have Canadians with topeight finishes.
There were groundbreaking Canadian performances: Mohammed Ahmed smashed the national record in the 10,000 metres; Brittany Crew became the first Canadian woman ever to reach a shot put final; Crystal Emmanuel was the first Canadian woman in a 200-metre final since 1983; and Justyn Knight joined Ahmed in the 5,000-metre final for another Canadian first.
But they weren’t enough to get to the podium and for a team that won eight medals at the 2015 worlds — a Canadian best — and followed that up with six at the 2016 Rio Olympics, it was a huge letdown.
It was supposed to be the event where Canadian track and field proved it really had arrived on the global scene, able to consistently compete with the best in the world. Instead, almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
Injuries took out De Grasse and Olympic high jump champion Derek Drouin before they even made it to the track for their events. And a stomach virus swept through the team hotel, robbing decathlon favourite Damian Warner of his strength just before he had to compete in the gruelling 10-event competition. He finished fifth.
“For me, it was a humbling experience,” De Grasse said in September, after a month to reflect on the championships. The first week was tough, just watching the 100 and 200 and seeing the results and knowing what I could have done.”
American Justin Gatlin won the 100, with young American teammate Christian Coleman second and Bolt just getting to line for third after a terrible start.
The medal times — 9.92, 9.94 and 9.95 seconds — were all slower than what De Grasse ran to win the bronze medal in Rio, and clockings that he and his coach thought were well within reach before his injury.
The 200, De Grasse’s better event, seemed even more open for a medal with Bolt not even in the race. The winning time there, by Turkey’s Ramil Guliyev, was 20.09, well off the 19.80 De Grasse ran to win silver in Rio.
“I’ll get over it, I’ll have another year. I have a long career ahead of me,” the 23-year-old De Grasse said after he’d been cleared to start training again. Now I’m just looking forward to next year.”
The trouble is, 2018 is an off-year in the sport with no Olympics or world championships.
A small Canadian track and field team will go to the 2018 Commonwealth Games in April, and Toronto will host the 2018 North American, Central American and Caribbean championships next August in a three-day event billed as Track & Field in the 6ix. Athletics Canada is looking to make the most of renewed interest in track — driven in large part by De Grasse’s sub-10-second runs, starting in 2015 — by bringing a top international competition to Canada’s biggest city.
As for the worlds, that’s an event that athletes and staff alike have done their best to leave behind.
“We already don’t talk about that event anymore,” Mathieu Gentes, Athletics Canada’s chief operating officer, joked in October.