De Grasse wins 100m & 200m silver at Diamond League Final in Zurich
At the final meet of the 2021 Diamond League, Andre De Grasse sprinted his way to the podium — twice.
In the first of his two races on Thursday at the Weltklasse in Zurich, Switzerland, De Grasse won the silver medal in the 100m, matching his personal best time of 9.89 seconds which he had first run in winning bronze at Tokyo 2020.
De Grasse wasn’t the quickest off the start, but he maintained his focus and powered his way to the finish where he was just edged out for the victory by 0.02 of a second by American Fred Kerley, who had won 100m silver in Tokyo. Just as they were running out of track, they both moved past another American, Ronnie Baker, who finished third in 9.91 seconds.
It is the second 100m Diamond League podium of the year for De Grasse, who won his last race over the distance at the Prefontaine Classic on August 21 in a wind-aided 9.74 seconds.
Just over an hour later, De Grasse was back on the track for the 200m. He came out of the blocks well but was a little wide on the turn. Again, he was just beaten to the line by an American, this time Kenneth Bednarek, who had been the runner-up to De Grasse in the Olympic final in Tokyo and was a little fresher having not competed in the 100m.
De Grasse’s time of 19.72 seconds was just 0.02 slower than Bednarek. Kerley came through for the bronze in 19.83 seconds, finishing one spot ahead of another Canadian, Aaron Brown, who placed fourth in 20.13 seconds.
In the men’s 800m, Marco Arop missed the podium by just 0.02 of a second as he was just beaten to the line by American Clayton Murphy. It was a 1-2 finish for Kenya, led by Olympic champion Emmanuel Kipkurui Korir who defeated countryman and Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Ferguson Cheruiyot Rotich by four-tenths of a second.
Olympic finalist Django Lovett finished fifth in the men’s high jump with a top clearance of 2.27m. The gold medal went to Olympic champion Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy, who cleared 2.34m.
