By Doug Harrison

Copyright cbc

Canadian sprinters Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse picked up a second straight global championship medal in the rain, capturing silver in the world 100-metre relay on Sunday in Tokyo.

Anchor De Grasse battled Noah Lyles down the home stretch, but the American pulled away over the final metres to reach the finish line in a world-leading 37.29 seconds at Japan National Stadium.

Canada posted a season-best 37.55, with the Netherlands taking bronze in a national record 37.81. The Canadian mark is 37.48, set by Brown, Blake, Rodney and De Grasse in their 2022 winning performance at worlds in Eugene, Ore.

“Congrats to [the U.S.] but I still feel like we’re a team that can win gold,” Brown told Devin Heroux of CBC Sports. “We’re happy with a silver but we know there is more there.”

Canada, which also won Olympic gold last summer in less-than-ideal race conditions, won its heat on Saturday in 37.85, finishing ahead of the U.S.

“I didn’t get to show [the Canadian sprinters] who USA was. It’s [going to be] fun in Beijing [at the 2027 worlds],” said Lyles, who will also leave Tokyo with 100 bronze and 200 gold from these world championships.

Sporting a crown on his head, Lyles said Sunday’s effort proves the Americans are the best in the world.

“Noah, it was you who said, ‘Canada who?’ leading into the Olympics, then Canada beats you, and now you don’t remember you actually started this beef,” countered Trackside co-host, Perdita Felicien.

CBC Sports analyst Donovan Bailey believes Lyles’s words should “light a fire under the Canadians” in the relay and, more importantly, the individual athletes. “We’ve got to get guys back in the 100-metre final.”

Coleman added Sunday’s race outcome felt “like a relief because we know we’re supposed to [win].”

‘No answer for the speed of the Americans’

“Canada has nothing to hang their heads at,” she added. “Their [baton] exchanges were clean. They just did not have an answer for the speed of the Americans.”

There was a great opportunity for Canada to capture gold 24 hours after powerhouses South Africa and Jamaica were DQ’d in the heats, along with Great Britain and Italy, for botching the handover of the baton.

De Grasse praised Brown for a “great” pre-race speech Sunday.

“We’re happy with the performance, almost a national record,” he said. “We’re consistent. We’ve won [five medals at global championships] since 2015 [bronze at worlds in Beijing]. I’m grateful to be part of it.”

Blake joined the team in time for its 2021 Olympic silver behind Italy at Japan National Stadium. Two years ago, the Canadian men did not qualify for the world final in Budapest, Hungary, where De Grasse skipped the heats and his replacement, Bolade Ajomale, struggled badly down the stretch.

Earlier this week, De Grasse wondered if Tokyo would be the farewell appearance for him, Brown, Blake and Rodney as a team.

“The younger guys are coming,” De Grasse said. “We have good alternates. Eliezer [Adjibi] just ran in the [world] 100m this year and we have Duan [Asemota] who won the Canadian [title on Aug. 1 in Ottawa]. I know those guys are hungry to get on the team.”

Bailey said keeping the ‘old men’ together was a great call by Athletics Canada head coach Glenroy Gilbert, with whom he won 1996 Olympic relay gold in Atlanta.

“I did say I would mix it up,” Bailey reminded viewers after Sunday’s race. “Isn’t it such an easy way for me to motivate the team? … These guys have done phenomenal. Congratulations to the U.S. team and the Canadian team.”

De Grasse added: “So many great memories. I think all of us are going to cherish this moment. Obviously, we’re a little bit disappointed but when we look back at it, we’re going to be grateful and happy we came together. We’ve done this at such a high level for a long time.

“Amazing run and we look forward to worlds again in Beijing in 2027.”

U.S. tops Jamaica for women’s relay gold

Earlier Sunday, the Canadian women’s 4x100m team, fresh off a national record 42.38 in Saturday’s heats, went 42.82 for seventh in the final.

The U.S. captured gold in 41.75, followed by Jamaica (41.79 season best) and Germany (41.87).

At the World Relays in May, Sade McCreath, Jacqueline Madogo, Marie-Éloïse Leclair and Audrey Leduc was fifth.

Canada also appeared in the Olympic final a year ago in Paris, placing sixth in the rain.

“We’re all out here in the same weather,” said McCreath, “so you can’t let it be a distraction.”

On Sunday, Madogo told Heroux the team’s first world final was a “great experience” and its time to medal at worlds will come.

“We’re a very young team and we’re building momentum,” she said.

Leclair said it is “inspiring’ racing with McCreath, Madogo and Leduc.

“I hope [the team] can inspire other people, other girls in Canada,” Leclair said.

‘I felt like I ran with my heart’

Sha’Carri Richardson saved the day for the Americans on a day track bid a hug-filled farewell to Jamaican sprint legend, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

“I felt like I ran with my heart because of the ladies I’m standing with,” Richardson said, as she celebrated her first gold medal of a championships that was far from perfect. “I feel really good. It came back. I’m ready to start all over again.”

It has been a tough, injury-tainted year for Richardson, who finished fifth last weekend in the women’s 100. Even so, the U.S. put her on the anchor leg for the 4×100 relay — same place she’s been for gold-medal performances the last two years — and she didn’t disappoint.

But unlike last year at the Olympics, when she gave the side-eye to the opponents she passed, then stomped her foot for emphasis at the finish line, she had to run hard all the way through in this one.

Richardson was trailing by 1-100th of a second when she received the baton from Kayla White. It took a few steps for her to build a lead of her own, and she held off Jonielle Smith down the stretch and leaned in for the win.

It was a 4-100ths margin, and the difference might have been a slight hiccup in an exchange between Jamaican twins Tia and Tina Clayton.

It was Richardson’s comeback that turned Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, who ran the lead leg, into the first three-time sprint winner at worlds —100, 200 and relay — since Fraser-Pryce did it in 2013.

It also left the Jamaican they call the “Mommy Rocket” with silver, the same colour she won in her debut at worlds, back in 2007 in Osaka when she was 20 and earned a spot on the foursome that ran the qualifying round.

“No emotions right now,” Fraser-Pryce said. “Just grateful to be able to finish this race. It’s been such a remarkable moment.”

Jefferson-Wooden wasn’t alone in seeking out Fraser-Pryce, whose medal was her 17th from world championships to go with eight from the Olympics, mostly to say “thanks.”

“She’s definitely paved the way for women’s short sprints and it’s so inspiring to see someone like her do what she did and be so dominant for so long,” Jefferson-Wooden said. “All of us up here are aspiring to do the same things.”

The U.S. won 26 overall medals at these worlds, the same number they captured in the same stadium four years ago at the Tokyo Olympics. Only seven were gold that time.

Canada will leave Japan with five medals, including gold by hammer throwers Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers, along with Evan Dunfee in the race walk.

The Canadian team brought home six medals two years ago from Budapest, Hungary, trailing its eight-medal outburst in 2015 in Beijing.

Hocker returns to track, wins men’s 5,000m

American Cole Hocker came to world championships hoping for two medals.

He was only allowed to run for one, and when he won that one Sunday, it felt pretty good.

Hocker, who rose to track fame by winning the Olympic 1,500 last year with an inside charge past the two favourites, got disqualified from that event this week while running the same line in qualifying.

Back on the track for the 5,000, he took to the outside lane for the closing kick and nobody could stop him from there.

Hocker sprinted past a bunched-up group including Isaac Kimeli and 10,000 champ Jimmy Gressier to win in what has been his better race this year, even though he felt he could contend in both.

“Of course I wanted to see how I could do in two events, and I felt like one event was taken from me and I didn’t get to show my potential,” said Hocker, whose winning time was 12 minutes 58.30 seconds. “Not getting to do that in the 1,500 really hurt. But then I got to do that in the 5,000, and I knew that was the only way I was going to redeem myself.”

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.