Canadian men’s team makes it through to the 4x100m finals, could break national record

The Canadian men are through to the finals in the men’s 4 x 100m and ready to run in the final tomorrow night.

The team was made up of Akeen Haynes, Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney and Mobolade Ajomale. They ran in the first heat which got off to a bad start with a false start by the Dominican Republic team. The team was disqualified.

Viewers saw a smooth run by the four Canadian men. It looked like Brown struggled in his run but he ran well enough to get it done. Ajomale was on the last leg and ran an incredibly powerful one to land Canada in third place in the heat capping off their race with a 37.89 finish. That’s the second fastest Canadian time in the event. The top three teams in each heat move along automatically which means that Canada will be back again tomorrow night.

Official heat 1 results. Canada punches their ticket to the final in M4x100m pic.twitter.com/axIjiGS6BR

— CanadianRunning (@CanadianRunning) August 18, 2016

Donovan Bailey  was also watching and commented saying that the men had safe passes which is exactly what you want in this race. Before they went ahead on the track, the women’s relay ran with the American team dropping the baton in a dramatic race.

Bailey was particularly impressed by the smoothness of the young Mobolade Ajomale who turns 21 later this month. “It was an amazing feeling,” said the sprinter after the race. “It’s an unbelievable feeling,” he says about moving on to the final round.

Sprint sensation Andre De Grasse was not on the team as he is competing in the 200m finals tonight where he should get himself onto the podium. He will however be added to the team to run again tomorrow night in his last race of the Rio Games. The question though is which stretch will he run? It’s between the back stretch or the anchor position and both have their advantages.

The Canadian record in the event is 37.69 set in 1996.