Aaron Brown captures his 1st Diamond League 100-metre race, beating Yohan Blake

A late add to the men's 100-metre field, Toronto sprinter Aaron Brown came on strong near the finish line to win his first-ever Diamond League race at the distance on Saturday in England.

Brown ran 10.13 seconds into a slight headwind at Alexander Stadium in a race that began with American Trayvon Bromell and reigning European champion Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain being disqualified for false starts.

Jamaica's Yohan Blake was second in 10.18 at the Müller Birmingham meet, followed by his cousin Jerome Blake (10.20) and fellow Canadian Andre De Grasse (10.24).

A week ago, Brown opened the Diamond League season in the 200 with a fifth-place finish in Doha, Qatar.

WATCH | Brown victorious in 1st men's 100m of Diamond League season:

The 29-year-old will join Blake and De Grasse later Saturday in the men's 4x100 relay, along with teammate Brendon Rodney. It'll be the first time they have raced together since earning a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics last summer.

On Thursday, the International Olympic Committee rubber-stamped their Olympic upgrade to silver during Thursday's meeting of the executive board. Great Britain, which finished 1-100th of a second behind Italy for a gold medal, was disqualified following CJ Ujah's doping violation.

Brown, who will run the first leg on Saturday, expects Canada to run under 38 seconds if the team displays clean handoffs, its downfall nine months ago in Tokyo, where Italy crossed the finish line first in 37.70 ahead of Great Britain (37.51).

"It was the difference between bronze and gold," Brown said this week over the phone from Birmingham. "We have the leg speed to compete with anybody in the world. It's a matter of finding our spacing [with the handoff] and being more consistent