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:
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The Canadian sprinter topped the podium ahead of countrymen Jerome Blake and Andre De Grasse, who finished third and fourth respectively.
The 29-year-old will join Blake and De Grasse later Saturday in the men’s 4×100 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).
‘We have the leg speed to compete with anybody’
“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 with it. The relay is like a dance and every step is crucial. If you’re one step out of place, it throws off the entire routine and it’s hard to recover.
“I’d love for us to run a clean race where we’re not conservative with our steps. If we play conservative now, we’re going to play conservative [at world championships in July] and be scared to take a chance”
Elsewhere, Edmonton’s Marco Arop rebounded in the men’s 800, getting the better of Frenchman Benjamin Robert in a winning time of 1:45.41. Last week in Doha, the 23-year-old Arop was third in his outdoor season opener in the event, clocking 1:49.51 in a slow race.
WATCH | Arop dominates the field in the 800:
Canadian Marco Arop won the 800m race by almost a second, finishing in a time of 1:45.41.
Ranked third in the world, Arop is looking for redemption this season after failing to advance to the Olympic in Tokyo. He will also attempt to break Brandon McBride’s Canadian record after coming within 6-100ths of a second in 1:43.26 at Diamond League Monaco last July.
High jumper Django Lovett of Surrey, B.C., took Saturday’s men’s event with a 2.28-metre clearance, defeating Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi (2.25) and Norbert Kobielski (2.25) of Poland.
WATCH | Lovett leaps to victory in Birmingham:
Lovett bested the field as the only athlete to clear 2.28m in Birmingham, England.
Lovett, who cleared 2.27 for third in Doha, captured his first Canadian title a year ago with a 2.33 personal-best before placing eighth (2.30) in his Olympic debut.
The Diamond League season resumes next Saturday at the Prefontaine Classic from Eugene, Ore., beginning at 4 p.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
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