Twenty-four hours after briefly holding the world record in the new mixed 4x100m event, Canada took second place on the podium behind Jamaica at the World Relay Championships.
The champions of the day won in 39 seconds 62/100. They also improved their own world mark established on Saturday in qualifying.
Audrey Leduc managed to come back in the last relay to beat her American rival in the final meters. The United States had to settle for bronze, 10 cents behind Canada.
Marie-Éloïse Leclair, Eliezer Adjibi and Duan Asemota carried the witness in the first three segments on the Debswana track in Botswana, in front of a very enthusiastic audience. Even before this silver medal, the champions in 2025 had assured Canada its place at the world championships scheduled for the summer of 2027 in Beijing.
Leduc and Leclair also combined their efforts with those of Ontario’s Sade McCreath and Quebec’s Donna Ntambue, about twenty minutes later, to win silver in the women’s 4 x 100 m. The Canadians were first at the last transmission of the baton between Leclair and Ntambue, but the latter was beaten by her Jamaican rival Elaine Thompson-Herah, who stopped the clock at exactly 42 s.
Overall, I think we gave a very good performance under the circumstances.
underlined Leduc in an interview with Radio-Canada Sports. It’s a very good start to the season, it shows that the form is there, since we did four races in two days
she added.
It’s really being able to do it when it counts that’s special for us right now.
a affirmé Leclair.
With a time of 42.17 s, the Canadians set a national record.
We managed to do that, then go and win the silver medal with a new Canadian record, so it has a special place in my heart.
The Canadian sprinters in the 4 x 400 m also won a medal, finishing in 3rd place.
Zoe Sherar, Lauren Gale, Jasneet Nijjar and Savannah Sutherland ran the distance in 3:22.66, which is a season record for the quartet. Norway and Spain complete the podium.
In the men’s event, Canada, the reigning Olympic champion, had to settle for 7th place after the injury to the right thigh of second runner Jerome Blake. He barely made it by hopping up to Brendon Rodney.
Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown completed the quartet, as in Paris in 2024. The Americans won gold in 37.43 ahead of the South Africans and the Germans.
