IOC rubber-stamps medal upgrade for Canada's men's relay team at Tokyo Games

OTTAWA — Canada's men's 4x100-metre relay team from the Tokyo Olympics has officially been upgraded to silver nine months after they raced to bronze.

The International Olympic Committee rubber-stamped the upgrade during Thursday's meeting of the executive board.

Jerome Blake of Burnaby, B.C., Aaron Brown and Brendon Rodney of Toronto, and six-time Olympic medallist Andre De Grasse of Markham, Ont. posted a time of 37.70 seconds in Tokyo to finish behind Italy and Great Britain. Great Britain's result was scrubbed in February after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled against lead-off runner Chijindu Ujah, for a doping violation.

"To retroactively get upgraded to a silver medal on our day off kinda feels weird," Brown said in a YouTube video in March. "We didn't go out there and run any faster, we didn't do anything different on the track. It’s literally because of a disqualification, so that feels a little strange."

Brown said he was content with his bronze; he was sympathetic with Britain's other relay team members.

"Those guys were out there working their butt off too and they deserve that medal just as much as we do,” Brown said. "To go from being that close to gold (Italy edged the Brits by 0.01 seconds) to now walking away with no medal at all, nah man, that's tough. My heart goes out to them, I feel bad for them and that makes it hard for me to celebrate getting a silver medal, honestly."

Canadian Olympic Committee president Tricia Smith called the Canadian sprinters "incredible ambassadors" for Canada and the Olympic movement.

"We are delighted that they will be upgraded to the silver medal they earned," she said in a statement. "While it’s disappointing that we are still seeing doping cases robbing