Tuesday’s Brescia Grand Prix at the Gabre Gabric Athletics Facility in Brescia, Italy, saw an epic showdown between Kelowna, B.C.’s Jerome Blake and Botswanan Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo. Continuing his stellar season of racing, the Canadian leaned across the line just one-hundredth of a second ahead of Tebogo to claim 100m gold in 10.06. Tebogo settled for second in 10.07, while Japan’s Yuki Koike took third in 10.26.
The race marks the second narrow defeat in recent days for Tebogo. Last Friday, at the Monaco Diamond League, he was edged out in his signature 200m by 100m Olympic champion Noah Lyles, who was returning to the 200m distance for the first time in 338 days.
Blake’s win in Brescia follows his career-best performance last month at the International Anhalt Meeting Dessau in Dessau-Roßlau, Germany, where he ran a blistering 9.97 seconds. That result secured him the world championship standard (10.00) and made him just the sixth Canadian in history to break the 10-second barrier in the 100m. (Ben Johnson‘s 9.95 from 1986 is no longer recognized by Athletics Canada.)
“Trust the process–that is the name of the game,” the 29-year-old wrote on Instagram. “Thankful for where I am and excited for what is coming.”
On Thursday, Blake was named to Canada’s 30-athlete roster for the upcoming NACAC Championships in Freeport, Bahamas, where he’ll aim to continue his remarkable momentum.
