No Canadian showdown: De Grasse pulls out from 100m Diamond League race with injury

Olympics Summer·ROUNDUP

So much for the Canadian battle in the men’s 100 metres in Stockholm. Andre De Grasse pulled out of the race due to a groin injury on Sunday, spoiling the chance of a showdown with fellow Canadian Aaron Brown in the season’s seventh Diamond League meet.

Toronto’s Aaron Brown finishes 5th with time of 10.27 seconds in Stockholm

CBC Sports

· Posted: Jul 02, 2023 1:46 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 hours ago

South Africa’s Akani Simbine took the victory in Stockholm after Canada’s Andre De Grasse pulled out due to injury. Toronto’s Aaron Brown finished in fifth place. (Ibraheem Al Omari/Reuters/File)

So much for the Canadian battle in the men’s 100 metres in Stockholm.

The two Toronto natives competed in the 200m event on Friday in Lausanne, Switzerland, when Brown came out on top, but their next clash in Diamond League will have to wait.

Brown finished fifth in Sunday’s race with a time of 10.27 seconds, powering through the wet conditions at the Olympic Stadium.

South Africa’s Akani Simbine took the victory, crossing the line in 10.03. Reece Prescott of the U.K. finished second while Germany’s Joshua Hartman rounded out the podium.

WATCH | Brown races through wet conditions in Sweden:

Canada’s Aaron Brown gets 5th place 100m finish in Stockholm

The Canadian sprinter ran a 10.27 time in the Diamond League event in Sweden.

The Canadian moved to third in the Diamond League 100m rankings with the result.

The Kelowna, B.C., native finished behind Germany’s Hartman, who won the event, and South Africa’s Ben Richardson.

The next Diamond League stop is set for July 16 in Chorzów, Poland, just over a month from the world championships in Hungary.

Protesters disrupt 400m hurdles race

Olympic champion Karsten Warholm won his 400m hurdles race and then turned to join in the crowd booing environmental protesters who disrupted his Diamond League event near the finish.

Three people kneeled on the track about eight metres from the line holding two banners that spanned from lanes one to six, forcing runners to break through them. No athlete appeared to be hurt.

Back to back wins for @kwarholm!

The Norwegian breezes to a comfortable victory in 47.58 in the 400m hurdles. #StockholmDL 🇸🇪´#DiamondLeague
📷 @matthewquine pic.twitter.com/ExtxHCEHRd

—@Diamond_League

Warholm running in lane eight had no barrier in his way though seemed distracted, with a fourth apparent protester squatting in lane seven seeming to photograph the incident.

He was visibly angry with the protesters as they were led away while spectators booed.

Warholm’s winning time on a cool, rainy evening was 47.57 seconds, well outside his 45.94 world record set at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago.

An unusual evening’s work for Warholm included warming up in a parking garage in downtown Stockholm so that, he said later, he could arrive “dry and warm coming to the start.”

Duplantis falls just short of pole vault world record

The rain wreaked havoc with numerous events, particularly the much-anticipated men’s pole vault featuring local hero Armand Duplantis.

The event was delayed more than two hours due to safety concerns. Fans stuck around to watch more than an hour after every other event had finished and vaulters cradled cups of tea to keep warm.

Duplantis, the Olympic and world champion, cleared 6.05m on his first attempt to win. He then missed on three attempts at 6.23, which would have topped his world record of 6.22.

WATCH | 2023 World Athletics Diamond League — Stockholm: