De Grasse to line up next to Bolt in Olympic 100m semifinal at Rio 2016
The men’s 100 metre semifinals take place on Sunday night with Canada’s hopes entirely on the 21-year-old shoulders of Andre De Grasse.
Should he finish top two in his heat, De Grasse will head straight to the final taking place later in the evening at his very first Olympic Games.
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Usain Bolt and Andre De Grasse share a moment after both men won medals in the 100m at the 2015 IAAF World Championships on August 23, 2015 in Beijing, China.
In the semifinal (8:07 ET), De Grasse will have a target. He simply has to stay with arguably the world’s most famous athlete and certainly the fastest person who has ever lived, Usain Bolt.
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DeGrasse will stand at lane five of heat two to start, while Bolt will be next to him in six. This is not the first time the two have been in the same heat. At Beijing 2015 – De Grasse’s first world championships – the two men qualified for the final together tied at 9.99 seconds each. Also in that semifinal heat in Beijing stood Trayvon Bromell of the United States. He’ll also be present in De Grasse’s heat at Rio 2016. In Beijing, all three men made the Olympic podium with Bolt winning the world title in 9.79, while De Grasse and Bromell shared third place with 9.92 each.
Here are the heats for the semifinal:
Heat 1 (lane – name, country, personal best)
2 – Hassan Taftian, Iran (10.04)
3 – Jimmy Vicaut, France (9.86)
4 – Nickel Ashmeade, Jamaica (9.90)
5 – Akani Simbine, South Africa (9.89)
6 – Zhenye Xie, China (10.08)
7 – Ben Youssef Meite, Cote d’Ivoire (9.99)
8 – Marvin Bracy, United States (9.93)
9 – Jak Ali Harvey, Turkey (9.92)
Heat 2 (lane – name, country, personal best)
2 – Cejhae Greene, Antigua and Barbuda (10.01)
3 – Kim Collins, St. Kitts and Nevis (9.93)
4 – Andrew Fisher, Bahrain (9.94)
5 – Andre De Grasse, Canada (9.92)
6 – Usain Bolt, Jamaica (9.58)
7 – Chijindu Ujah, Great Britain (9.96)
8 – Ryota Yamagata, Japan (10.06)
9 – Trayvon Bromell, United States (9.84)
Heat 3 (lane – name, country, personal best)
2 – James Dasaolu, Great Britain (9.91)
3 – Su Bingtian, China (9.99)
4 – Yohan Blake, Jamaica (9.69)
5 – Kemarley Brown, Bahrain (9.93)
6 – Justin Gatlin, United States (9.74)
7 – Aska Cambridge, Japan (10.10)
8 – Daniel Bailey, Antigua and Barbuda (9.91)
9 – Christophe Lemaitre, France (9.92)
