On a cool Tuesday evening, reigning Olympic 200-metre champion Andre De Grasse ran to victory in a season-best 20.09 seconds a little over one hour after crossing the finish line first in the 100 ahead of 2021 Olympic gold medallist Marcell Jacobs at the 63rd Ostrava Golden Spike.
Coming off the bend shoulder to shoulder with Andrew Hudson, De Grasse pulled away from the Jamaican over the final 100 metres for his second straight win in the 200 on the young outdoor campaign. Hudson finished in 20.56, with Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake third (20.63).
“It’s a good training session for me,” De Grasse told World Athletics at Mestský Stadium in the Czech Republic. “I wanted to come out here test my fitness plus my endurance and see where I’m at.
“It’s early in the season but I’m happy with [the result]. The weather was a little bit chilly for the 200 but next time I’ll get the sub-20 [seconds].”
Tuesday marked the first time De Grasse has competed in the 100/200 double on the same day since last Aug. 4 at the Ed Murphey Classic in Memphis, Tenn., where he was fifth in the heats and won the 200 in 20.19.
WATCH | De Grasse clocks 20.09 seconds to win 200m in Ostrava:
Andre De Grasse caps a perfect day at the Ostrava Golden Spike event, with a 200-metre victory in a season’s best time of 20.09 seconds.
After struggling for much of last season and placing sixth (20.14) at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, De Grasse pulled ahead of the field down the stretch in the Diamond League Final on Sept. 17 to reach the line in 19.76 for his first season-ending trophy.
Buoyed by a strong final 20 metres in Tuesday’s 100, De Grasse sprinted to his second victory in three races in 2024, clocking 10.10 at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet.
The Markham, Ont., athlete took 1-100th of a second off his previous best to beat Jamaica’s Ryiem Forde (10.17) and Jacobs (10.19).
WATCH | De Grasse runs 10.10-second season best over 100m:
Andre De Grasse from Markham, Ont., won the 100-metre sprint at the Ostrava Golden Spike event, while Jerome Blake of Kelowna, B.C., finished third.
De Grasse, 29, also won his 100 season opener in 10.11 on April 27 at the East Coast Relays in Jacksonville, Fla., where he lives and was second at the Marrakesh Diamond League in Morocco on May 19.
“I feel like I’m still in my prime. I feel like I can still run fast,” De Grasse told CBC Sports earlier this year.
De Grasse, who has collected back-to-back Olympic bronze medals in the event, hasn’t run under 10 seconds in 19 races since the 2021 Diamond League Final when he placed second (9.89 personal best) to American Fred Kerley (9.87).
His closest performance since then is 10.05 on June 16, 2022 at the Bislett Games Diamond League event in Oslo, Norway.
WATCH | CBC Sports’ Athletics North — Can De Grasse go lower than 9.84?:
The Canadian sprinter has made it clear that before he retires he wants the men’s national 100m record currently held jointly by Donovan Bailey & Bruny Surin. Certified track nerd Morgan Campbell gives an update on De Grasse from the time they spent together earlier this year in Jacksonville, Florida.
Jerome Blake of Kelowna, B.C. shared third place with Jacobs in 10.19, eclipsing his 10.34 SB from May 15 in Savona, Italy.
The 28-year-old, who was born in Buff Bay, Jamaica ran a 2023 SB of 10.06 in the heats at the Canadian track and field championships last summer in Langley, B.C.
Jacobs, who trains with De Grasse in Jacksonville, started well in Tuesday’s race but wasn’t satisfied after crossing the finish line after winning in 10.07 on May 18 at the Roma Sprint Festival in Italy.
“I need to watch [the race] again with my coach to understand where [I had] some problems,” he said.
WATCH | 63rd Ostrava Golden Spike — Full event replay:
Watch the world’s top track and field stars compete at the World Athletics stop in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
Also Tuesday, Olympic-bound Charles Philibert-Thiboutot of Quebec City was fourth in the men’s 1,500, his third race in the distance in nine days.
Philibert-Thiboutot took the lead from Austrian Raphael Pallitsch about 350 metres from finish but was overtaken on the straightaway by winner Federico Riva (3:33.53) and Pallitsch (3:33.59). They achieved PBs along with third-place finisher Luke McCann of Ireland (3:34.32). Philibert-Thiboutot crossed in 3:34.50.
Philibert-Thiboutot opened in the 1,500 this season in 3:36.73 on May 19 in Germany and followed six days later with a 3:37.10 effort in France.
In his 2023 Diamond League opener, he went 3:33.29 in Silesia, Poland and 21-100ths under the Olympic standard for Paris this summer.
WATCH | Philibert-Thiboutot 4th in men’s 1,500m in season-best time:
Italy’s Federico Riva wins the men’s 1,500-metre event at the Ostrava Golden Spike event, in a time of 3:33.52. Quebec City’s Charles Philibert-Thiboutot finished in fourth place.
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