Canada’s De Grasse wins 200m
Perhaps the world’s next sprint star wasn’t so hard to find after all.
He’s Andre De Grasse, the Canadian who ran his first sprint as a teen in baggy basketball shorts and borrowed spikes, and now has an Olympic gold medal in the 200 meters.
De Grasse powered past a pair of Americans — Kenny Bednarek and the favorite, Noah Lyles — to finish in 19.62 seconds Wednesday and take one of the titles that Usain Bolt had owned for the previous three Olympics.
It ends a string of close calls for the 26-year-old and fills out a medal collection that was only missing gold. De Grasse won bronze four nights earlier in the 100 to go with the thirdplace medal he took in that event in Rio de Janeiro.
Given all he’s been through, it was no surprise when he revealed that he’d been crying behind the bronze — or were they gold — colored shades he wore for the race.
“It’s my first time being so emotional on the track,” De Grasse said. “I always thought I came up short winning bronze and silver, so it’s just good to have that gold medal. No one can take that away from me.”
The world has been looking for someone, anyone, to take Bolt’s place in the marquee track events.
On Sunday night, Italian sprinter Marcell Jacobs came from nowhere to win the 100.
But finally, De Grasse has cashed in.
American Sydney McLaughlin won the women’s 400-meter hurdles, breaking her own world record with a time of 51.46 seconds. McLaughlin, 21, beat out teammate Dalilah Muhammad, whose time of 51.58 also topped McLaughlin’s old mark of 51.9, set at Olympic trials in June.
Breanna Stewart scored 20 of her 23 points in the first half as the U.S. women’s basketball team routed Australia 79-55 to advance to the semifinals. The U.S., which has won 53 consecutive games in the Olympics, will face Serbia on Friday. France will take on host Japan in the other semifinal.