 | Today we're looking at a big event this weekend for Canada's Olympic-champion men's 4x100m relay team. Plus, the Leafs will be without goalie Anthony Stolarz tonight, the CFL suspended Winnipeg QB Zach Collaros for missing a drug test, and the Dallas Cowboys made a big trade. | | | Andre De Grasse and his relay teammates are back to work
| | | Last year's Summer Olympics in Paris were filled with thrilling Canadian moments. To name just a few, we had Summer McIntosh's three swimming gold medals, Camryn Rogers and Ethan Katzberg's historic hammer-throw sweep, and the women's soccer team's defiant run to the playoffs amid the Dronegate scandal.
But my favourite — and I think most Canadians would agree — was the astonishing gold-medal victory by the men's 4x100m sprint team. Pretty much left for dead out in lane nine after backing into the final with the slowest qualifying time, Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse put on an absolute clinic of relay teamwork and precision on the rain-drenched track at the Stade de France to upset the United States (disqualified again!) and others on the sport's biggest stage.
Every Canadian who watched that race will remember it for a very long time. But what most people didn't see was the painstaking work that Brown, Blake, Rodney and De Grasse put into becoming such a well-oiled machine. And a big part of that preparation was the World Athletics Relays last May in the Bahamas, where the Canadian quartet took silver and clinched their spot in the Olympics.
The World Relays obviously don't carry anywhere near the same prestige as the Olympics or even the world championships. They take place early in the season, when sprinters are still building their way up to those bigger meets, and draw far less mainstream attention. Aside from serious track fans, most people aren't even aware of them.
But I think it's pretty telling that, among the eight teams in the Olympic final, only Canada had the same four men who ran in the World Relays final three months earlier. And that the sloppy U.S. — DQ'd after yet another botched exchange in a major championship — saw half of its lineup turned over. In an event like the 4x100 where so much can (and often does) go wrong, continuity matters.
With that in mind, it's great to see Brown, Blake, Rodney and De Grasse all back for this weekend's World Relays in China, where teams can clinch a spot in the world championships in September in Tokyo — the biggest event on the track calendar this year.
Assuming they qualify, the Canadians will get to defend what I'll call the relay championship belt they won at the Olympics. And they'll also have a chance to bury their disappointing performance from the last world championships, in 2023 in Budapest. As the reigning champs after their stunning upset of the U.S. the year before in Oregon, Canada failed to qualify for the final after a weary De Grasse elected to skip the preliminary round to rest for his 200m final.
The path to Tokyo should be pretty straightforward for the Canadians, who opened their relay season last month with a victory at the lower-key Florida Relays. Here's how it works:
Fourteen of the 16 entries in the world championships are up for grabs this weekend at the World Relays, with the remaining two to be determined by world rankings in late August.
On Saturday, the top two finishers in each of the four opening-round heats clinch a spot in the worlds and advance to Sunday's final, where they'll race for the $40,000 US top prize. The other teams go into an additional round earlier Sunday where the top two in each of the three heats qualify for the worlds.
The United States, as usual, is widely considered the favourite on the strength of its depth. The Americans will be without Olympic and world 100m champion Noah Lyles, but back-to-back Olympic 200m silver medallist Kenny Bednarek is in after sweeping his 100m and 200m races at each of the first two stops on the new Grand Slam Track circuit. He'll be joined by world 200m silver medallist Erriyon Knighton, Brandon Hicklin and Courtney Lindsay.
Three of the four South Africans who took Olympic silver (just 0.07 of a second behind Canada) are competing this weekend, led by Akani Simbine, who's won both Diamond League 100m races so far this year. And, despite not qualifying for the Olympic final, Jamaica looks dangerous with Olympic 100m silver medallist Kishane Thompson and former world champ Yohan Blake.
Canada also has teams in the women's and mixed 4x100 and 4x400 events this weekend.
The women's 4x400 squad took bronze at the World Relays last year, then finished sixth at the Olympics. The women's 4x100 team, led by national 100m record holder Audrey Leduc, also placed sixth in Paris after finishing seventh at the World Relays.
While the mixed 4x400 has been around for a while, the mixed 4x100 is a new event making its global debut this weekend. It won't be part of this year's world championships, but the two-man, two-woman event was recently added to the Olympic program for 2028 in Los Angeles. All eight of the Canadians who ran in the Olympic men's and women's 4x100 finals last year are on the list of potential competitors for the World Relays, but it's unclear at the moment who will actually race.
How to watch:
You can catch the World Athletics Relays live on Saturday and Sunday from 7-10 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. Here's the full schedule. | | |  | Andre De Grasse, Brendon Rodney, Jerome Blake and Aaron Brown shocked the world at the Paris Olympics. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
| | | Quickly…
| | | Some other things to know:
1. Maple Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz is out.
Coach Craig Berube said backup Joseph Woll will start Game 2 against Florida tonight at 7 p.m. ET after Stolarz left Monday's second-round series opener in the second period. Stolarz took a hard shot to the mask early in the game before the arm of Panthers forward Sam Bennett made contact with his head, which resulted in Stolarz vomiting by the Leafs bench during a TV timeout and then heading for the dressing room. He was taken to a local hospital for evaluation but was back at the team's practice facility on Tuesday. It's unclear how long he'll be out.
Woll allowed three goals on 20 shots in relief of Stolarz, but Toronto held on for a 5-4 win. Third-stringer Matt Murray will serve as the backup tonight.
Bennett was not penalized on the play, nor disciplined by the NHL, so he'll be on the ice tonight (presumably with his head on a swivel). Florida will also have defenceman Aaron Ekblad back in the lineup after he served a two-game suspension for a headshot on Tampa Bay's Brandon Hagel in the first round.
Injuries are also a big topic in the Jets-Stars series, which opens tonight at 9:30 p.m. ET in Winnipeg. For the Jets, star centre Mark Scheifele, top defenceman Josh Morrissey and blue-liner Logan Stanley are all game-time decisions. Same for Stars leading goal-scorer Jason Robertson, who missed the entire first round, and top defenceman Miro Heiskanen, who's been out since late January.
Last night, the Edmonton Oilers set an NHL playoff record with their fifth straight comeback win, scoring four unanswered goals to beat Vegas 4-2 in their series opener. Also, Carolina beat East top seed Washington 2-1 in OT in their opener.
In other NHL news, the Utah Hockey Club chose Mammoth as its new nickname.
In women's hockey, the PWHL playoffs begin tonight with second-seeded Toronto hosting No. 4 Minnesota. Top-ranked Montreal plays No. 3 Ottawa tomorrow night. If you missed yesterday's newsletter, here's our preview of both matchups.
2. Canada's two biggest NBA stars square off again tonight.
Jamal Murray's Denver Nuggets lead MVP favourite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's top-ranked Oklahoma City Thunder after a surprising 121-119 victory in their second-round opener on Monday night. SGA had 33 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists and fellow Canadian Lu Dort chipped in 14 points for OKC, while Murray scored 21 on another monster night for Denver's Nikola Jokic (42 points, 22 rebounds). Game 2 tips off at 9:30 p.m. ET.
Also tonight, the defending-champion Boston Celtics look to draw even with New York after the Knicks stole Game 1.
Last night, Golden State beat Minnesota 99-88 in their series opener but lost Steph Curry for at least a week with a hamstring injury. Also, Indiana came back to stun Cleveland 120-119 on a last-second three by Tyrese Haliburton and take a 2-0 lead on the East's top seed.
Canada's Bennedict Mathurin scored 19 points off the bench for the Pacers, while Andrew Nembhard had 13 points and a game-high 13 assists. Cleveland was without three key players due to injury, including NBA Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley and starting guard Darius Garland, who sat out his fourth straight game. | | | And very quickly…
| | | A few more things before we go:
* The CFL suspended Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros one game for failing to respond to an off-season drug-testing request.
* The Dallas Cowboys made a big trade, acquiring talented but mercurial receiver George Pickens from Pittsburgh for a pair of draft picks.
* Inter Milan advanced to their second UEFA Champions League final in three years yesterday with a thrilling 4-3 extra-time win over Barcelona. The 2023 runners-up will face Paris Saint-Germain or Arsenal, who are playing the second leg of their semifinal today in France after PSG took the opener 1-0. | | | That's it for today. Talk to you later.
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