American sprinters continue to have bragging rights over their Canadian men’s counterparts on the young track season.
Kenny Bednarek, fresh off winning 4×100-metre relay gold medal at World Relays last weekend, dominated the men’s 200 metres in a winning and personal-best time of 19.67 seconds on Friday at a Diamond League meet in Doha, Qatar.
The 2021 Olympic silver medallist now boasts a season world-leading time and also took down the 19.83 meet record held by fellow American Noah Lyles since May 4, 2018.
Courtney Lindsey, the 2023 NCAA silver medallist in the 200, held the previous world lead of 19.71. He finished second on Friday in 20.01, followed by Kyree King in 20.21, who ran 20.11 on April 20 at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif.
Canada’s Aaron Brown was fifth (20.29) at Qatar Sports Club in his first Diamond League race of the season. He ran 20.00 to open his 2023 campaign in the 200 in Botswana and went on to post a 19.98 season best last September in Brussels.
Last Sunday, Andre De Grasse, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Brown ran 37.89 in the final at World Relays behind Bednarek, King, Lindsey and Lyles (37.40).
WATCH | Bednarek leads U.S. to 100m win at World Relays:
The United States captures the men’s 4×100-metre relay world title while Canada’s Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse claim silver at the World Athletics Relays.
Brown, who trains with Bednarek, King and Lindsey in Montverde, Fla., told CBC Sports this week he was looking forward to testing himself against familiar competition.
“We had to race each other in the Bahamas, so now it will be fun to race individually and see how we stack up against each other.
“The extra motivation to do well is there for sure as they’ve all put up great performances so far and I want to get on the board, too.”
The Toronto native has already achieved the 20.16 automatic entry standard for the Paris Olympics this summer. While he’s not among the 19 sprinters to have run the 10-second standard for Paris in the 100, Brow is 31st of the top 56 for Olympic selection, based on world ranking points.
Later Friday, Vancouver runner Kieran Lumb will make his Diamond League season debut at the third of 15 stops on the 2024 calendar.
It will mark the Olympic hopeful’s third appearance on the pro track and field circuit and first in the 1,500 after running the 3,000 last year (Stockholm) and in 2021 (Oslo, Norway).
Lumb, 25, opened his outdoor season at the Oregon Relays on April 19 in Eugene, Ore., competing in the 1,500 and distance medley relay.
Diamond League calendar
- Rabat/Marrakech — May 19
- Eugene (Prefontaine Claissic) — May 25
- Oslo, Norway — May 30
- Stockholm — June 2
- Paris — July 7
- Monaco — July 12
- London — July 20
- Lausanne, Switzerland — Aug. 22
- Silesia, Poland — Aug. 25
- Rome — Aug. 30
- Zurich — Sept. 5
- Brussels (DL Final) — Sept. 13-14
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Source Agencies
