© Copyright – 2024 – Athletics Illustrated
In a surprise turn of events, the Canadian men won the 4 x 100-metre relay event at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. No one expected them to win, few expected them to medal.
Going in as underdogs, the Canadian men’s relay team members all failed to advance to the finals in their respective single events. Aaron Brown (10.43), Jerome Blake (8.98), Brendon Rodney (9.20), and Andre de Grasse (8.89) clocked a 37.50 performance and took the gold medal in a redemptive act to salvage their Paris Olympic run.
Trust the process…
— Athletics Canada (@AthleticsCanada) August 9, 2024
🥉 at Rio 2016
🥈at Tokyo 2020
🥇at Paris 2024
4x100m Men win Athletics Canada’s first Olympic medal on the track at #Paris2024 🇨🇦👏
📸: Darren Calabrese/COC pic.twitter.com/RPpx75qqo1
Although all was not smooth as Blake and Rodney, took a couple of efforts to pass the baton on, a drop or any further delay could have meant disaster, which befell the pre-race favourite, Team USA, who again made a mess of their efforts.
“I tried to warn them. They didn’t believe though,” Brown said about the doubters among their competition. “I never stopped believing. These guys can do incredible things when we get together and put our mind to it. We showed today: never count us out no matter what lane. It doesn’t matter what lane we get. We can be in two, we can be in nine, we can be in the stands. It doesn’t matter. Give us a lane, give us an opportunity, and these guys can make magic together.”
Blake powered down the back straight. When it came time to handoff to Brendon Rodney, he hit his teammate smoothly in stride.
“We knew if we come out here, we’re in lane nine, we’d be out there by ourselves. We just needed to trust each other and just focus on getting off the mark properly. I know if we did that we’ll be fine,” Blake said. “The minute Andre crossed the line and our name flashed first, I waited a couple seconds. I couldn’t believe it. I was on the ground just laying down in the water. It was just such a surreal moment. It’s something I wanted to feel from Tokyo, but it never happened.”
South Africa took silver in the time of 37.57, which is a national and African record. Great Britain took bronze in 37.61. Home team France finished in sixth.
The Americans were so bad that they were later disqualified. Christian Coleman (9.86) led off and was running well, but Kenneth Bednarek (9.93) botched the exchange by first taking off too soon, then slowing to have Coleman run into the back of him. The two passed outside of the exchange zone. The next exchange to Kyree King (9.31) was poor as was the final exchange to Fred Kerley who ran the anchor leg in 8.79 seconds.
It is time to blow up the system. This continues to be completely unacceptable. It is clear that EVERYONE at @usatf is more concerned with relationships than winning. No athlete should step on the track and run another relay until this program is changed from top to bottom. https://t.co/Re6THj8QTm
— Carl Lewis (@Carl_Lewis) August 9, 2024
All four Canadians ran as well as could be expected, but Rodney, the best curve runner in the business was the primary difference maker.
The American men have a long history of botching the handoffs.
Results
Pos | Athlete | Nat | Mark | Rt |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Canada – Aaron BROWN 10.43 Jerome BLAKE 8.98 Brendon RODNEY 9.20 Andre DE GRASSE 8.89 | CAN | 37.50 SB | 0.155 |
2 | South Africa – Bayanda WALAZA 10.41 Shaun MASWANGANYI 9.06 Bradley NKOANA 9.32 Akani SIMBINE 8.78 | RSA | 37.57 AR | 0.153 |
3 | Great Britain & NI – Jeremiah AZU 10.51 Louie HINCHLIFFE 9.03 Nethaneel MITCHELL-BLAKE 9.29 Zharnel HUGHES 8.78 | GBR | 37.61 SB | 0.162 |
4 | Italy – Matteo MELLUZZO 10.40 Lamont Marcell JACOBS 8.96 Lorenzo PATTA 9.12 Filippo TORTU 9.20 | ITA | 37.68 SB | 0.142 |
5 | Japan – Ryuichiro SAKAI 10.41 Abdul Hakim SANI BROWN 8.88 Yoshihide KIRYU 9.16 Koki UEYAMA 9.33 | JPN | 37.78 SB | 0.130 |
6 | France – Méba Mickaël ZEZE 10.36 Jeff ERIUS 9.00 Ryan ZEZE 9.41 Pablo MATEO 9.04 | FRA | 37.81 SB | 0.153 |
7 | PR of China – Zhijian DENG 10.55 Zhenye XIE 9.01 Haibin YAN 9.44 Jiapeng CHEN 9.06 | CHN | 38.06 SB | 0.160 |
United States – Christian COLEMAN 9.86 Kenneth BEDNAREK 9.93 Kyree KING 9.31 Fred KERLEY 8.79 |