De Grasse leads Canada to men's 4x100m relay gold at world championships

EUGENE, Ore. — The Canadian men's 4x100-metre relay team is golden at the world track and field championships.

Six-time Olympic medallist Andre De Grasse anchored a team of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake and Brendon Rodney to victory on Saturday in a time of 37.48 seconds, the fastest in the world this season.

The gold was Canada's third medal of the world championships.

The Americans took silver in 37.55, while Great Britain finished third (37.83).

The victory was a terrific finish for De Grasse, who contracted COVID-19 a month ago, and didn't qualify for the 100-metre finals. He also withdrew from the 200 metres.

It also comes after some near misses by Canada's team. De Grasse led the Canadians to silver at last summer's Tokyo Olympics and bronze in Rio in 2016, plus bronze at the 2015 worlds in Beijing. Canada didn't make the final at the last worlds in 2019 in Doha.

Led by Donovan Bailey, Canada won 4x100 gold at the 1995 and 1997 world championships. That team included Glenroy Gilbert, who is now Athletics Canada's head coach.