De Grasse wins final race before 2017 World Championship

Andre de Grasse (Fernando Frazao, Wikimedia Commons)

It appears that Canadian Olympic medalist Andre De Grasse of Scarborough, Ontario is heading into the 2017 International Association of Athletics Federations World Championship in Athletics in fine form. That is because on Sunday, De Grasse won a men’s 200m Diamond League race in Rabat, Morocco.

De Grasse posted a winning time of 20.03 seconds, which was a meet record. Ameer Webb of the United States won the silver medal with a time of 20.18 seconds. Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain won the bronze medal with a time of 20.22 seconds. De Grasse reached the podium by 0.24 seconds. Fred Kerley of the United States finished in fourth place with a time of 20.27 seconds.

Even though De Grasse is undefeated in his last seven races, he is not the favourite in London for the World Championships next month. That is because eight-time Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt of Jamaica will be competing and has made it public it will be his last international competition before deciding to retire.

Even though Bolt won 100m races in Ostrava and Kingston, Jamaica in June, he did not seem to be in top form. If we have learned anything from Bolt over the years however, it is the fact he can win big competitions by not running one hundred percent. It will be interesting how he will do against De Grasse and others at the beginning of next month.

 

 

 

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