Pan Am Games: Andre De Grasse completes historic double

Andre De Grasse filled the stands at York University for a second time in three days and, again, sent everyone home stunned.

De Grasse, who exploded onto the Canadian sprint scene in June with his double NCAA gold in the 100m and 200m dash repeated the feat at the Pan Am Games on Thursday evening, this time from lane eight, winning the 200m in 19.88, bettering his own national record.

“This feels amazing, the first Canadian to run under 20 seconds, it doesn’t get any better than this,” said De Grasse, drapped in the Canadian flag after his race, noting he didn’t even know he’d won when he crossed the line.

“A lot of people a few weeks ago couldn’t pronounce my last name. They would called me ‘De Gasse-y,’ now they know my name is De Grasse.”

The 20-year-old looked sluggish Thursday, nabbing the third auto-qualifying spot in his heat, far back from the 19.80 performance posted by Jamaica’s Rasheed Dwyer, leaving some wondering if he would pull off the second win.

“It was probably the most excited I’ve been,” De Grasse’s University of Southern California coach Caryl Smith Gilbert said about his 200m performance, his sixth race of the Games. “I put him in lane eight and I put him in lane one and tell him ‘One day this is going to happen to you. How are you going to handle it?'”

Shortly after De Grasse’s historic double, stands still cheering for De Grasse when the race began, two more Canadians hit the podium in the men’s 1,500m. Nate Brannen and Charles Philibert-Thiboutot finished second and third behind American Andrew Wheating. The two raced to 3:41.66 and 3:41.69 finishes.

“It’s a little bittersweet,” said Brannen after the race. “I think I could have won it if I was in better position. It’s a little disappointing being in front of a home crowd and so close to the gold the only time I’d ever get to hear the national anthem at home. But I’m happy with the silver.”

“It’s amazing hearing the crowd,” continued Brannen, a veteran of international championship racing. “It doesn’t matter if you know you or not, they’re going crazy. At the Olympics you get a roar of the crowd but this – at the Olympics there’s 70,000 people in the stands, here maybe 25,000, and it’s twice as loud for every Canadian. It’s hard to be prepared for what you experience here.”

After the men’s 1,500m, the women’s 3,000m steeplechase made the medals three in a row for Canada. Geneviève Lalonde finished third, running 9:53.03 behind two Americans, Ashley Higginson and Shalaya Kipp. Canadian Erin Teschuk finish fourth in 10:02.33.

The Canadian men’s and women’s 4x100m relay teams also raced, both qualifying for Saturday’s final. The women raced to a 42.98 finish behind Jamaica’s 42.82. The men ran 38.39, third in their heat behind Antigua and Barbuda and the United States. De Grasse sat out, resting for tomorrow’s final, which he will likely race.