World Relays reveal Canada can lean on depth, continuity in buildup to 2025 world championships

If you're fixated on outcomes, maybe the bronze medal Canada's men's 4x100-metre team earned at World Relays last weekend in Guangzhou, China seems like a regression. 

Canada fielded the same lineup that won Olympic gold last summer in Paris, yet here was Andre De Grasse on the anchor leg, trying but not quite succeeding in keeping pace with South Africa's Akani Simbine in a sprint to the finish line. South Africa took gold in 37.61 seconds, .05 seconds ahead of the United States, with Canada back in third at 38.11.

Last year at this same competition Canada took silver, behind a U.S. team anchored by all-world sprinter Noah Lyles.

No sprinter, after all, can control what happens in another lane, and Simbine is already midseason-sharp. Last month he ran 9.90 into a headwind, a time that still leads the world. He doesn't need permission from De Grasse or any other rival to run fast. The only person who could stop Akani Simbine from a blistering anchor leg was Akani Simbine, and Simbine chose to conduct a clinic.

A bit more perspective.

De Grasse left a group of anchor runners flailing in his wake, and gained ground on Brandon Hicklin, who ran last for the U.S. The post race stats analysis had De Grasse covering the final leg in 8.90 seconds, which means he did his job. A cleaner first exchange between Aaron Brown and Jerome Blake would likely have bumped Canada below the 38-second barrier, and put them within shouting distance of silver.

WATCH | Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney on what makes relay team successful:

Viewed that way, Canada's foursome is actually well-positioned for the 2025 world championships in Tokyo. A podium performance with room to improve between now and September.

As for concrete accomplishments, Team Canada left Guangzhou with a gold medal in the co-ed 4x100, a national record in the women's 4x100, and yet another men's 4x100 medal. But just as importantly, as Tokyo 2025 approaches, and De Grasse et al edge deeper into their 30s, Canada displayed the kind of relay depth that could help it earn medals in the long term.

WATCH | Canada achieves season-best time in mixed 4x100m final:

If this were strictly a sprint depth contest, the U.S. would win in a landslide, almost every year. Canada has four legal sub-10-second sprinters in its history. The U.S. has six this year, including two high schoolers. Canada won bronze with its best men's relay team. The U.S. left two Olympic 100m medallists – Lyles and Fred Kerley – at home and took silver.

On the women's side, you can attribute the U.S.'s fourth-place finish to the fact that two of the sport's fastest early-season performers – Melissa Jefferson and Gabby Thomas – stayed behind, while Sha'Carri Richardson won't open her season until this Sunday.

But the problem, as U.S. men's teams keep demonstrating, is that cornering the market on the world's fastest individual sprinters doesn't guarantee success in a team event.

It takes a baseline level of speed, obviously.