Andre De Grasse was one of four men to break 10-seconds in the 100 meters heats at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, while world leader Trayvon Bromell struggled in his race on Day Two of the track and field schedule. Click here for the complete result summary.
De Grasse, the bronze medalist at Rio 2016, paced the qualifiers for the semifinals with a season’s best time of 9.91 seconds which he used to win heat five on the day. Prior to Saturday’s race, the Canadian had a year best of 9.99s, achieved early in the year in Florida.
Fred Kerley of the United States followed De Grasse home in second place and he too went under the 10-seconds barrier, posting 9.97s for the third-fastest time from the round.
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European 60m indoor champion Marcell Jacobs set an Italian national record of 9.94s to win the third heat. The time saw Jacobs improving on his own national record by 0.01 seconds, which was set in Savona, in May. It was the third time the 26-year-old was breaking 10-seconds in his career and all three performances have so far come in 2021.
Enoch Olaoluwa Adegoke of Nigeria, the winner of the second heat, was the other sprinter submitting a sub-10 seconds clocking on the day, racing home to a new personal best of 9.98s.
Meanwhile, the world leader and American champion Bromell was well below his best in his heat after he was surprisingly run out of an automatic top-three spot but qualified for the semifinals on time.
The 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials winner and quickest this year at 9.77s, ran 10.05s for fourth place in his heat.
READ MORE: Toyko 2020 Olympic Games full track and field schedule and times
However, his teammate Ronnie Baker was more relaxed when winning his heat in 10.03s, while Chinese record-holder Su Bingtian also won his heat with 10.05s, and African record holder Akani Simbine of South Africa rounded out the heat-winners with his time of 10.08s.
Among the other highlighted sprinters advancing to the semifinals were Jamaican rising talent Oblique Seville who matched his PB with 10.04s, Jamaica’s London 2012 double Olympic silver medalist Yohan Blake (10.06), as well as Great Britain European champion Zharnel Hughes (10.04), Australian Rohan Browning (10.01 PB) and new Kenyan record holder Ferdinand Omurwa (10.01 PB NR).
