Canadian sprinter Andre De Grasse ended his long gold-medal drought Wednesday by clinching the Olympic men's 200-meter gold medal with a timing of 19.62 seconds.
De Grasse, who claimed the 100-meter bronze and 200-meter silver at the 2016 Olympics and 2019 World Championships, finally fulfilled his potential under the clear night sky at the Tokyo Stadium.
The 26-year-old Canadian became the first Olympic 200-meter champion since Jamaican Usain Bolt, who won gold at three consecutive Olympics from the 2008 Beijing Games before retiring in 2017.
For most of the race, however, it looked like De Grasse would again finish with any medal but gold. He came into the turn third but seemed to find a higher gear to surge past his American rivals in the last 40 meters and claim victory with a Canadian national record.
The last time the United States won this event was in 2004, when they swept the medals.
Noah Lyles had established himself as the world's top 200-meter sprinter in 2018 by winning all his races over the distance and posting a series of sub-19.7 times.
World champion Lyles, who came to Tokyo with a 2021 world-leading time of 19.74 set in the U.S. trials, appeared poised to end his country's long wait. But Lyles was passed by his teammate Kenny Bednarek, who took the silver medal with a time of 19.68, and had to settle for bronze in 19.74.
Bednarek had arrived in Tokyo in red-hot form after his 19.78 personal best at the U.S. Olympic trials and running in the lane next to De Grasse helped him through.
American Erriyon Knighton, 17, who has taken Bolt's under-20 world record, missed out on becoming the youngest medalist in a men's athletics event by finishing fourth.
Kenya's Emmanuel Korir won the men's 800 meters Olympic title with compatriot Ferguson Rotich taking silver to put some gloss on their country's disappointing athletics medal haul at this Games.
Korir timed 1 minute 45.06 seconds with Rotich finishing in 1:45.23 while Poland's Patryk Dobek took the bronze in 1:45.39.
Korir succeeds fellow Kenyan and two-time champion David Rudisha, who was unable to defend his title due to injury.
Wilfried Bungei also won the title for Kenya at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The Kenyans have not been at their best in Tokyo, even seeing their stranglehold on the men's 3000-meter steeplechase dating back to 1984 broken by Morocco's Soufiane el Bakkali.
Silver medalist Rotich said the disappointing results were understandable given the difficulties Kenyan athletes had faced preparing for the Games due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"In Kenya, we are progressing despite the challenges of the pandemic," he said.
"In the last year, most of us, we didn't train well. There was the coronavirus and now we're coming back.
