Individual or team? Sprint schedule presents dilemma for Canadian men at World Athletics

All three Canadian men entered in the 200 metres at the World Athletics Championships qualified for the semifinals, and that's awesome news.

Brendon Rodney, fresh off his 100m personal best at Canadian nationals, ran a season's-best 20.14 to qualify for round two.

Aaron "Mr Consistency" Brown finished his heat in 20.08, fourth fastest among qualifiers. 

And, of course, Andre De Grasse, who ran 20.28 to finish second in his heat. If he still has the raw speed he has flashed in the past, he'll need it in his semi — he's one lane inside Erryion Knighton, who ran 19.49 last season.

If all three Canadians perform well, at least one of them should make the 200m final Thursday night … which could present a problem.

Brown, Rodney and De Grasse form the backbone of Canada's 4x100 relay team, and have carried the program to one of its most successful stretches ever. Since 2015, Canada has won four global championship medals in the 4x100 relay, including a come-from-behind gold at worlds last summer.

WATCH: Trio of Canadians advance into 200m semifinals:

This year, the 4x100m heats and the 200m final will bookend the evening session on Friday, presenting what we in the regular working world call a scheduling conflict. Normal folks like the rest of you would try to move one of those commitments so you could honour both of them. Or, if you're like me, you punt one obligation to next week, and figure the situation will work itself out.

But for Canada's relay team, solutions aren't so simple. 

They could run Brown, Rodney and De Grasse in the relay semi, and hope that whichever of them is in the 200 final has enough in reserve to go stride-for-stride with Noah Lyles et al later. Or they could let their Big Three concentrate on the