Brown, De Grasse through to Olympic 200m semifinals
It was a morning of Canadians looking to advance through the qualification rounds in athletics, as Aaron Brown and Andre De Grasse got the action started on the track on Day 11 of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The Canadian athletics team co-captain, Brown got his third Olympic appearance underway in the men’s 200m first round heats. Coming through the finish line, the sprinter cruised into a first-place finish in his heat, clocking a time of 20.38 seconds and will advance onto the semifinals in the evening session.
Back on the track after winning the bronze medal in the men’s 100m dash, reigning Olympic silver medallist De Grasse joined his fellow Canadian in the 200m semifinal, finishing heat 3 in third place with a time of 20.56s. Brendon Rodney raced in heat 7, but did not advance with his time of 20.60.
With that first round behind them, Brown and De Grasse will look towards a quick recovery before turning their attention to their semifinal races tonight.
“Main thing was just to survive and advance, set myself up for a good lane in the semifinal and then get out of here, get some rest, eat, hopefully nap but probably not too hard, but rest up for the semifinal,” said Brown.
On the field, 10-time Canadian champion Liz Gleadle kicked off her third Olympic Games in the qualification round of the women’s javelin. With her best throw measuring 59.19m, Gleadle will not be advancing to the final.
![Kyra Constantine running on a track](https://olympic.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Team-Canada-Kyra-Constantine-Athletics-Tokyo-2020-1.jpg?quality=100&w=1131)
In the women’s 400m, the duo of Kyra Constantine and Natassha McDonald made their Olympic debuts, racing to times of 51.69s and 53.54s, respectively. For Constantine, her time was enough to advance her into the semifinals.
“I’m just really glad for the opportunity to come out here and bring my childhood dream to life,” said Constantine. “I’ve been dreaming about this since I was eight years old. To actually be here, all the hard work, all the sacrifice, all the dedication I put into this sport for the past decade and a half really paid off.”
Aside from the men’s 200m semifinal, the first round of the men’s 5000m will be on deck in the evening session. That will feature Mohammed Ahmed, returning to the track after a strong 10,000m race on the first day of athletics, as well as Justyn Knight and Luc Bruchet competing for Canada.
Camryn Rogers will look to continue her strong Olympic debut in the women’s hammer throw final, while Tim Nedow gets his Tokyo 2020 competition started in the men’s shot put qualification.