De Grasse, Blake headline men’s 100m field at Fanny Blankers-Koen Games

HENGELO, Netherlands — Olympic 200m champion Andre de Grasse and 2011 world champion Yohan Blake will clash in the men’s 100m at the 2022 Fanny Blankers-Koen Games in Hengelo, on Monday (6). Tokyo Olympic finalist and Asia record-holder Su Bingtian will also feature in the 2022 World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series meeting.

After a strong 2021 season where he won gold in the 200m and a bronze medal in the 100m, De Grasse was hoping to pick up from where he left off last summer. Read more: Dafne Schippers takes on strong 100m field at Fanny Blankers-Koen Games

However, the Canadian has been struggling to find a decent form thus far this season with his most recent performance being a 10.21 seconds ninth-place finish at the Prefontaine Classic 2022 meeting last month.

His quickest time in all conditions this year is a wind-assisted 10.07 (+2.1 m/s) performance at the North Florida Collegiate Invitational in Jacksonville, FL, in April.

De Grasse made an almost similar slow start to the 2021 campaign before delivering at the championships and he will be hoping for a familiar path in his quest to win gold at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, next month and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, UK, later in the summer.

After taking bronze in the 100m with a personal best time of 9.89 secs at the Tokyo Games, the Canadian returned to the track four days later to power to another PB and national record of 19.62 secs to take the 200m gold medal.

Meanwhile, Yohan Blake has been trending in the right direction in the last couple of meetings.

The 2011 Daegu world champion has been working on several different parts of his race this season and his coach believes that he could be ready to hit his best marks again when the championship part of the season comes around.

So far, Blake has been steadily improving and is coming off a season-best performance of 10.05 (-1.2 m/s) when finishing second at the Golden Spike Meeting in Ostrava, on 31 May.

The 32-year-old Jamaican will be aiming to break 10-seconds for the first time this season when he lines up at the 2022 Fanny Blankers-Koen Games.

Only two other Jamaicans, Oblique Seville (9.86) who is the joint second-fastest this season, and collegiate sprinter, Davonte Burnett (9.99) have dipped under the 10-seconds barrier thus far this season.

Also lining up in Hengelo is Asia record-holder Su Bingtian, who will make his debut in 2022.

Su owns a personal best of 9.83 seconds, set in the semifinals at the Tokyo Olympics last summer, while posting five of his top 10 fastest 100m times ever during a very impressive 2021 season.

USA’s Kyree King, Great Britain’s Adam Gemili and Tyquendo Tracey of Jamaica who have all broken 10-seconds in their respective careers so far, will also face the starter.