In what might be their last hurrah, the Canadian men’s 4x100m relay quartet of Aaron Brown, Andre De Grasse, Brendon Rodney and Jerome Blake won silver behind their American rivals on the final day of the 2025 World Athletics Championships.
The American team stormed out to an early lead, but Canada clawed back to draw level with the U.S. squad heading into the anchor leg. The race for gold came down to a 100m sprint between De Grasse and Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles, with the American pulling away to secure a second consecutive world championship gold for Team USA in the men’s 4x100m relay with a world-leading time of 37.29 seconds.
Canada ran to a season’s best time of 37.55 seconds for second, and the Netherlands rounded out the podium for a surprise third in a national record time of 37.81.
“Our ability to rise to the moment time and time again speaks for itself,” Brown told Canadian Running on winning silver. “We were happy to be here again [in Tokyo] and on the podium.”
Team USA brought in the heavy artillery for the final, adding Lyles and multiple-time world championship medallist Kenny Bednarek after their disastrous run in the relay final at last year’s Paris Olympics.
This is the sixth major championship medal in the relay for the trio of Rodney, Brown and De Grasse, who won their first a decade ago at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing. Blake was added to the relay team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Canada did not medal or reach the final at the previous world championships in Budapest.
Double 4x100m relay gold for Team USA
It was a triumphant day for the Americans, the Jamaicans and the Germans, who took the medals in the women’s 4x100m relay on a very rainy evening in Tokyo on Sunday. Team USA, anchored by Sha’Carri Richardson, dominated the race, crossing the line in 41.75. It was leg 1 runner Melissa Jefferson-Wooden’s third gold medal of the games, having won the sprint double earlier in the competition.
Jamaican sprint icon Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce closed out her career with a silver medal, anchoring the island nation ahead of Germany, who surged late to snag bronze—a repeat of their podium finish in Paris last year.
The Canadian women’s team, who took sixth at last year’s Paris Olympics, finished seventh in 42.82 seconds after setting a national record in the qualifying round. All the teams struggled in the rain, and Team Canada had lane 1, the wettest lane of all.
For full results of the 2025 World Athletics Championships, click here.
Canadian Running’s coverage of the 2025 World Athletics Championships is brought to you by ASICS Canada.
