De Grasse advances to Olympic men's 100m semis, fellow Canadian Brown DQ'd
American superstar Lyles overcomes bad start to keep sprint double hopes alive
Canadian sprint star Andre De Grasse qualified for the men's 100-metre semifinal at the Paris Olympics on Saturday, while fellow Canadian Aaron Brown missed his chance to compete for a spot due to a false start.
De Grasse, who won the last two Olympic bronze medals in the event, clocked a time of 10.07 seconds to finish third in the penultimate heat, edging Liberia's Emmanuel Matadi for the final qualifying spot in their group by just one-hundredth of a second.
The 29-year-old from Markham, Ont., was under immediate pressure after the starting gun, as second-place finisher Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon got off to a strong start next to him while American Kenny Bednarek pulled away for first place in 9.97, winning by one-hundredth of a second.
WATCH l De Grasse lone Canadian to reach men's 100m semifinals:
De Grasse posted a personal-best time of 9.89 seconds in the 100 final at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. He is the reigning Olympic champion in the men's 200 metres.
He owns a season best of 10.00 seconds, which he ran in Finland, meeting the Olympic standard on June 18
"I'm feeling pretty good. I'll make some adjustments to tomorrow and make sure my start is there. I was a little lackadaisical at the start and that kind of tossed me," he said. "That first 40m is going to be crucial if I want to get into the final."
Toronto's Aaron Brown failed to advance after getting disqualified for a false start in the eighth and final heat, which was ultimately won by American star Fred Kerley in 9.97. Botswana's Letsile Tebogo (10.01) and Great Britain's Zharnel Hughes (10.03) also qualified.
"It's a little embarrassing. I'm at a loss for words... I'm still in shock. I felt like there was a twitch beside me and that made me react," said Brown. "I'm just going to run the heck out of that 200m and run the heck out of that 4x100m.
Duan Asemota of Ajax, Ont., placed fifth in the fourth heat in 10.17.
The semifinals kick off Sunday at 2:05 p.m. ET, with the final set for later that day at 3:50 p.m. ET. Watch live coverage on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Olympics app and CBC Gem.
WATCH l Brown disqualified for false start:
Lyles finishes 2nd in heat after bad start
Noah Lyles finished second in his opening heat but still advanced and kept alive his hopes for the sprint double.
The American got off to a sluggish start and finished in 10.04 seconds, which was .06 behind Louie Hinchliffe, a British sprinter being trained by Carl Lewis.
The second-place finish means Lyles, the reigning world champion at 100 and 200 metres, won't have the premier lane choice when he races in the semifinals Sunday. If he advances from that, he'll race for the gold medal later in the evening.
"It is difficult," he said. "I downplayed my competitors for sure. I was like `there's no reason to really put any emphasis on it.' But these guys proved to me that they're ready to compete. I said `alright, I can't do that anymore.' I promise that will not happen again."
Also advancing in the early heats were Kishane Thompson of Jamaica, who jogged the last 20 metres and won his heat in 10 seconds flat; Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya, who won his in 10.08; and Oblique Seville of Jamaica, who won his heat in 9.99.
Seville has a victory over Lyles at a race in Jamaica earlier this year.
Reigning Olympic champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs, who said he was bitten by an insect while in the starting blocks, finished second in his heat to advance with a time of 10.05.
In other athletics results from Day 8, Toronto's Jazz Shukla failed to advance out of the repechage in the women's 800 metres after finishing second in her heat with a time of 2:02.00.
World record-holder and defending champion Armand Duplantis of Sweden shared top spot with three others in his men's pole vault qualifying group. His mark of 5.75 metres was matched by Norway's Sondre Guttormsen, Greece's Emmanouil Karalis and Turkey's Ersu Şaşma.
The 12-man final is scheduled for Monday at 1 p.m. ET.
Philibert-Thiboutot advances to 1,500m semifinal
Charles Philibert-Thiboutot of Quebec City qualified for the men's 1,500m semifinal on Saturday night, running a season-best time of 3:33.53 in the repechage round. On Friday, he finished 14th in the fastest heat of the first round, with Saturday's race giving him a second chance to advance to Sunday's semifinal at Aug. 4 at 3:10 p.m. ET.
With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
