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Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Andre de Grasse sets tracks ablaze ~ winning 200M running 19.62 secs

Olympics is enchanting and Athletics is really thrilling and what a race it was in Men’s 200M sprint !!  ~  and is it always glory that awaits the winner ??!??

Nia Ali was  an American track and field athlete, speciliasing  in the 100 m hurdles, heptathlon, and other events.  She is the 2016 Olympic Silver Medalist in the 100-meter hurdles and twice in a row world indoor champion in 60 meters hurdles.

At the height of the pandemic last year, the reigning world champion in the 100-meter hurdles began to lose faith that the postponed Tokyo Olympics would ever take place. Nia Ali struggled to envision the world returning to normal in time to allow tens of thousands of athletes to safely convene this summer. COVID numbers were soaring across the globe. The race to develop a vaccine had just begun. Some of America’s most prominent Olympians couldn’t access their usual training centers, so they ran sprints on neighborhood streets, sparred in empty department stores or swam laps in backyard pools. It was against that backdrop of uncertainty that Ali, 32, decided she could no longer put her life on hold for a precarious Olympics. She and her partner, __________  agreed to try for a third child, even if the timing of a pregnancy meant sacrificing Ali’s hopes of chasing Olympic gold in Tokyo. Ali is watching from home in Jacksonville alongside her 5-week-old son.

In Jan 2018,   De Grasse was named to Canada's 2018 Commonwealth Games team. However, he had to withdraw before the games began due to his hamstring injury. In the Diamond League, De Grasse finished 6th in the 200m in Doha and 8th in the 100m in Shanghai, clearly affected by his injuries. He was unable to defend his national title in the 100m, settling for third in 10.20. During the 200m heats, he pulled up with a hamstring injury; the crowd cheered De Grasse on as he walked to the finish line, and he ended his season. .. .. must have been very painful.

Andre De Grasse  is a Canadian sprinter. De Grasse won the silver medal in the 200 m at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, as well as bronze medals in the 100 m and 4×100 m relay.  A couple of days back he won the bronze in the 100 m and  today the Gold became his in the 200 m at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.



Andre De Grasse won the men's 200-meter gold medal with a time of 19.62 seconds, edging Americans Kenny Bednarek (silver, 19.68) and Noah Lyles (bronze, 19.74). Erriyon Knighton, the 17-year-old phenom, finished fourth in 19.93 seconds. De Grasse has been one of the best sprinters in the world for several years. He came into Tokyo with three Olympic medals and four world championships medals, and won the bronze here in the 100m. But none of his medals were gold. He stormed to a semis-best and national record 19.73, solidifying himself as one of the favorites. American Noah Lyles came to Tokyo as a certain medal contender. The 2019 gold medalist and one of the fastest men ever in the event, he did not look his best in the first two rounds.  Lyles was leading coming off the turn but started to pull back way too early, with about 40 meters to go, allowing the other two men to catch him. Thankfully he avoided disaster.

De Grasse is the partner of American 100m hurdler Nia Ali, the 2019 world champion and Rio silver medalist.

Percy Alfred Williams was a Canadian athlete, winner of the 100 and 200 metres races at the 1928 Summer Olympics and a former world record holder for the 100 metres sprint.   At the 1928 Olympic trials, Williams won the 100 and 200 metres races, equaling the Olympic 100 metres record of 10.6 seconds. To earn his travel ticket for the trials, Wiliams and his volunteer coach, Bob Granger, worked as waiters and dishwashers in a dining car, and Vancouver track fans raised the money to pay Granger's transatlantic ship passage to the 1928 Olympics.

In later years, Williams grew bitter about his sporting experiences, culminating in being the only living Canadian Olympic gold medalist who refused the federal government's invitation to the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.  Williams, who never married, stayed with his mother until her death in 1980, at the age of 92. After that, he lived alone and suffered from arthritic pain. A keen collector of guns, Williams shot himself in the head with a gun he had been awarded in 1928 as a prize for his Olympic feat.  

Tragic !  .. ..

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
4th Aug 2021. 

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