‘I’ve learned my lesson’: Sprinter Bednarek says not to underestimate ‘Championship Andre’
American sprinter Kenny Bednarek was cruising in his 2021 rookie season as a pro, first beating Andre De Grasse over 200 meters in Diamond League encounters in England and Qatar, and later at a Continental Tour event in Hungary.
The Tokyo Olympics were a month away and Bednarek had heard stories from De Grasse’s Canadian relay teammate Aaron Brown about how “Championship Andre” would set lower-than-expected times early in a season, only to excel when he arrived at the Summer Games and world championships.
De Grasse ran the 100 in 10.17 seconds on the Ostrava Golden Spike in the Czech Republic, 10 weeks before Bednarek saw him clock a personal best of 9.89 in Tokyo for a bronze medal and become the first Canadian to win multiple Olympic medals in the distance won.
“I was like ‘Where did this come from? This is another guy,'” Bednarek recalled in a recent interview with CBC Sports.
In the semifinals of the Olympic 200, Bednarek recalled having “a pretty good start and chilling” when De Grasse blew past him to win their heat by 10-100ths of a second in a Canadian record 19.73 .
“Here I underestimated him,” said Bednarek about De Grasse. “[He] did something no one in Canada did [had] done before and [I thought] maybe i have it. Maybe he is [tired]De Grasse went faster in the final the next day, clocking 19.62 for the win – the first time a Canadian had won an Olympic 200 since Percy Williams in 1928.
“I have a huge amount of respect for him. He has made me a better competitor,” said Bednarek, who recovered to beat De Grasse at the Diamond League Finals in 2021 and last year. “I have to be on my A game anyway. The race isn’t over until you cross the finish line. It doesn’t matter who’s in the [field]I’m always ready.”
Words of wisdom to Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, who will face De Grasse Friday at 3:20 p.m. ET in the 200 at Athletissima, the sixth stop of the Diamond League season in Switzerland’s Lausanne. He beat the Canadian in the 100 last May at the Prefontaine Classic and won the 200 at this year’s Botswana Grand Prix in 19.87, while De Grasse ran 20.41 in his season opener on that April day.
1st stroke over 100 meters since last September
On Sunday at 12:14 p.m. ET, Sweden’s Henrik Larsson and Rafael Bouju of the Netherlands – each of whom has run faster than De Grasse in the 100 this season but never raced with him – will take on the six-time Olympic medalist in BAUHAUS galan in Stockholm, another DL match.
The live stream from Lausanne starts on Friday at 2 p.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app, and on CBC Gemwhile Sunday’s stream from Stockholm is available at 12 noon
Sunday’s race will be the first head-to-head meeting between De Grasse and Brown in the 100 since last September’s DL final in Zurich, where Brown finished third and De Grasse eighth. In fairness, he had COVID-19 twice in 2022 and was hampered by an injury to his right big toe for much of the campaign.
Brown, the four-time defending Canadian champion in the 100 and 200, has won in five consecutive matchups (100/200 combined) and seven of the past 10 races between them, including twice this season in the 200.
“His cornering work is a lot better,” said Bednarek, who trains with Brown at the Star Athletics Track Club in Montverde, Fla. “When we were racing in Doha [on May 5] I had a really good turn and he was right behind me.
“Me and all the younger athletes [at Star Athletics] look up at him. We see how hard he works, and that makes us want to work hard. Every time Aaron goes out on the track he’s trying to get better so he can be the best in Canada.”
LOOK | Brown sprints to 3rd place in the men’s 200 meters in Doha:
Toronto sprinter Aaron Brown finished in third place in the men’s 200 meters race, in a time of 20.35 seconds, at the opening event of the 2023 Diamond League season in Doha. The event was won by American Fred Kerley with a time of 19.92. Andre DeGrasse of Markham, Ontario, placed 6th in a time of 20.35.
Brown returns from a three-week training block to race in Lausanne, where the Toronto native posted a PB of 19.95 on July 5, 2019. His best this season is 20 seconds flat in Botswana on April 29.
De Grasse posted a 20.33 SB in the 200 at the Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway, earlier this month. In Friday’s field, Cuba’s Reynier Mena (19.95) and Tebogo are the only men to run under 20 this season.
On Tuesday, De Grasse finished strong in lane 5 of 100 at the 62nd Ostrava Golden Spike, stopping the clock in 10.21 to tie his season best since April 15 in Gainesville, Fla.
LOOK | De Grasse clocked 10.21 seconds in 3rd 100m race of the season:
Canadian Andre De Grasse ran a time of 10.21, good enough for third place in the men’s 100 meters race at the Continental Tour stop in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
“I see things change in training – he just runs faster,” De Grasse’s coach John Coghlan said in a recent interview with CBC Sports. “That’s no guarantee it will happen [his next race].”
South Africa’s Akani Simbine, the only athlete in Tuesday’s eight-man field to run under 10 seconds in 9.98, won the Stockholm 100 in 10.02 last year from Britain’s Reece Prescod and Frenchman Jimmy Vicaut. All three will be on the field of Stockholm’s Olympic Stadium on Sunday, where a new track was built after last year’s game.
Newman wants to recuperate in Switzerland
Two other Canadians are in on the Diamond League action this week: pole vaulter Alysha Newman in Lausanne and runner Kieran Lumb in the Men’s 3,000 in Sweden, where athletes will not collect DL points in the race.
Newman, who turned 29 on Thursday, entered Tuesday’s event in Ostrava at 4.34 meters, failing to complete all three of her attempts for her third no-height result in the past four events in two weeks.
On June 9, the native of London, Ont., achieved 4.46 at the Meeting de Paris Diamond League event, following a season-best 4.61, but dropped to 4.30 eight days later at the Kuortane Games in Finland. Newman also had no height at the June 13 Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland and Germany 11 days later.
Lumb of Vancouver was 10th of 19 finishers in the men’s 1,500, stopping the clock in three minutes, 36.97 seconds. The 24-year-old last raced the 3,000 outdoors on April 22, 2022 and has a 7:46.28 PB from the 2021 Bislett Games.
Diamond League Calendar
- Silesia, Poland — July 16
- Monaco — July 21
- London — July 23
- Shanghai — July 29
- Shenzhen, China – August 3
- Zurich — August 31
- Brussels — September 8
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