It had been a disappointing Olympics on the track for Canadian men so far.
Three years ago in Tokyo, Andre De Grasse won a pair of individual medals, Mohammed Ahmed won silver in the men’s 5,000m and Damian Warner won a gold in decathlon, which involves four races on the track.
And of course, the men’s 4x100m relay team of De Grasse, Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney and Kelowna’s Jerome Blake sprinted to an impressive silver medal.
At Paris 2024, day 14 began with no medals on the track for Canada, from either the men or women, but the reigning 4x100m silver medallists had a chance to change that.
De Grasse, Brown, Rodney and Blake didn't just medal; they topped the field to win gold in what will almost certainly be their final Olympic games as a quartet.
SHOCKED THE WORLD. 🥇
— Team Canada (@TeamCanada) August 9, 2024
Canada's men's 4x100m relay team claims the gold medal in Paris! 🇨🇦#TeamCanada | #Paris2024 | @RC_Sports pic.twitter.com/EnSj6bodld
Running in the outside lane, Brown got the Canadian team off to a great start on the first bend, then Blake and Rodney did their jobs nicely in the middle two legs.
The anchor, of course, was De Grasse, who put his tough individual Games behind him and ran the final leg in 8.89 seconds, battling through a nagging hamstring injury to secure gold for Canada.
The Canadian men finished in 37.50 seconds, just ahead of South Africa at 37.57 seconds and Great Britain at 37.61.
Blake, a Rutland Senior Secondary grad, told KelownaNow before the Olympics that the plan was “to go out there and win gold.”
“Given our pedigree, and you know, we're a championship program,” he said. “So for us, it's just going out there executing and trusting what we’ve put into our program, and just know that it will be fine.”
Fine would be an understatement, as Blake can now proudly call himself an Olympic champion.
Thumbnail photo courtesy of Getty Images.
