Canada’s Brown, De Grasse finish 5th, 6th respectively in 200m Diamond League event | CBC Sports

Canadians Aaron Brown and Andre De Grasse finished neck-and-neck in fifth and sixth place respectively on Friday in the men’s 200-metre event – the first of two races against one another this weekend in Diamond League action.

The two countrymates first squared off on the Diamond League’s sixth stop of the season in Lausanne, Switzerland, racing alongside one another in the third and fourth lanes.

Toronto’s Brown got off to a blazing start, leading all eight competitors to start the race, but eventually lost steam, being overtaken by four athletes, including first-place Letsile Tebogo. The Botswanan won with a time of 20.01. Brown finished with a time of 20.44, while De Grasse clocked in at 20.57.

WATCH | Brown, De Grasse finish 5th, 6th in 200m:

Brown and de Grasse come up short in 200 metre Diamond League Lausanne race

The competing Canadians finished 5th and 6th, respectively, during the men’s 200-metre sprint at the Diamond League meet in Lausanne.

Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago was second with a time of 20.11 and Liberian Joseph Fahnbulleh was third at 20.21.

Brown – who has a season-best time of 20.00 in the 200m – has now won six consecutive combined 100m and 200m matchups between the two fellow Canadians, as well as eight of the last 11 races between the two overall.

The 200m competition behind them, the two will now turn their attention to Sunday’s 100m Diamond League event in Stockholm.

Sunday’s race will be the first head-to-head meeting between the two Canadians in the 100 since the Diamond League Final last September in Zurich, where Brown was third and De Grasse – battling through various ailments – finished eighth.

Vancouver’s Kieran Lumb will also be competing on Sunday in the men’s 3,000m event.

Newman places 11th in women’s pole vault

Canadian Alysha Newman finished 11th in the women’s pole vault earlier on Friday.

The London, Ont., native had been mired in a tough stretch that saw her put forth three no-height results in the past four events over the last two weeks, most recently failing to clear 4.34 metres on Tuesday in Ostrava.

The 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist has a season’s best jump of 4.61m, which she earned in Los Angeles in May.

Four women – American Katie Moon, Australian Eliza McCartney, Finland’s Wilma Murto and Slovenia’s Tina Šutej – were able to clear that 4.61m mark on Friday, with Moon walking away with a first-place jump of 4.82m.

Diamond League calendar

• Silesia, Poland — July 16
• Monaco — July 21
• London — July 23
• Shanghai — July 29
• Shenzhen, China — Aug. 3
• Zurich — Aug. 31
• Brussels — Sept. 8

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