After failing to reach the final at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, the Canadian men’s 4x100m team found redemption at the 2024 World Athletics Relays in Nassau, Bahamas, winning a silver medal in the men’s 4x100m relay.
The quartet of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse qualified the Canadian men’s 4x100m relay team for the Paris Olympics in the opening round by winning their heat, which also advanced them to the final for a shot at USD $40,000 and a medal.
In Sunday’s final, the Canadian quartet had their chance for redemption against the reigning world champions, Team USA, and the 4x100m Olympic champions (Team Italy). The three countries were neck and neck heading into the third leg when USA’s Kyree King pulled the American team ahead before handing it off to the world 100m champion, Noah Lyles. As De Grasse tried to close the gap over the final 80m, Lyles held him off to put Team USA on top of the podium, giving Canada silver and Italy bronze.
Canada’s time of 37.89 seconds was their fastest of the 2024 season and only four-tenths of a second behind their national record.
This was the second sprint relay medal for Canada at the World Athletics Relays. De Grasse, Brown, and Rodney won gold in 2017 as part of Canada’s 4x200m relay team (an event World Athletics abolished in 2021).
Canadian women’s 4x400m team wins bronze
Silver was not the only medal Canada picked up at the 2024 World Athletics Relays. The Canadian women’s 4x400m team of Zoe Sherar, Aiyanna Stiverne, Alyssa Marsh and Kyra Constantine won their first global relay medal, earning bronze in a tightly contested 4x400m final behind USA and Poland.
By reaching the final, they also punched their ticket to the Paris Olympics. They finished fourth at Tokyo 2020.
You can view the full results from the 2024 World Athletics Relays, here.