Jerome Blake injured, Canada places 7th in men's 100m final at World Athletics Relays

saint jerome william blake of Kelowna, B.C., pulled up in the endorse leg of the men's 4x100-metre last, favouring his compensate leg and hobbled to hand the baton to Brendon Rodney as Canada placed seventh in the eight-team field in 40.06 seconds.

Aaron Brown, Andre De Grasse, Blake and Rodney won their qualifying heat Saturday in a then-world-leading 37.56 seconds, 6-100ths off their 2024 Olympic-winning time in Paris.

The United States was victorious Sunday, lowering the world-leading time to 37.43 to defeat South Africa (37.49) and Germany (37.76).

A year ago at World Relays, the Canadians lost precious time when the exchange between starter Brown and Blake wasn't clean and took a third attempt before the latter could proceed down the track.

Undeterred, Blake, Rodney and anchor De Grasse persevered and reached the medal podium, earning bronze behind South Africa and the Americans, who were minus Olympic and world 100m champion Noah Lyles but featured back-to-back Olympic 200 silver medallist Kenny Bednarek.

Also Sunday, Canada led the women's 4x100-metre final before Elaine Thompson-Herah exploded down the home stretch to propel Jamaica to victory in 42 seconds.

The second-placed Canadians set a national record of 42.17, one year after going 42.46 for the best-ever result by Canada.

Spain took bronze in Sunday's race in 42.31.

Canada's women set 4x100m national record, take silver medal at World Athletics Relays Gaborone 26

Elsewhere, Audrey Leduc pulled Canada into second position on the home straight in the mixed 4x100-metre final but couldn't catch Tia Clayton of Jamaica, who helped her team to a world record for the second time in two days.

Jamaica topped the eight-team field in 39.62 seconds after clocking 39.99 in its Saturday heat. Canada was second on Sunday in 40.23 and the United States third in a season-best 40.33.

On Saturday, Eliezer Adjibi, Marie-Éloïse Leclair, Duan Asemota and Leduc ran to a world mark of 40.07 to qualify for next year's World Athletics Championships in Beijing. About 10 minutes later, Jamaica won its heat in 39.99.

Canada claims 4x100m mixed relay silver at World Athletics Relays Gaborone 26

With its top-six finish in the final, Canada automatically qualifies for the World Athletics Ultimate Championships in September.

A year ago in Guangzhou, Sade McCreath, Eliezer Adjibi, Leclair and Asemota prevailed in a season-best 40.30 over Jamaica.

Make it five relay teams representing Canada at athletics worlds next year.

Edmonton's Dianna Proctor anchored the mixed 4x400-metre team to victory in Round 2 of qualifying in a Canadian record three minutes 12.43 seconds.

With Canada in third position for much of the race on a sunny and warm Sunday, Proctor stayed close behind Belgium's Camille Laus and Nanako Matsumoto of Japan before overtaking them over the final 100 metres on the straightaway.

Proctor prevailed by fewer than three metres, while Laus qualified Belgium in 3:12.79. Japan was third in 3:12.86.

Canada sets 4x400m mixed relay national record, qualifies for World Championships with comeback win

Last year in Guangzhou, China, Austin Cole, Lauren Gale, Nathan George and Zoe Sherar took nearly 10 seconds off their season best in the final, clocking a then-national record 3:12.95 in the second round of qualifying.

On Saturday, Ryder Rattee, Savannah Sutherland, Emma Cannan and George were fifth (3:14.93) in their heat and did not qualify for Sunday’s final.

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