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Where’s the beef? Andre De Grasse out for season

By Ryan Sterner

August 2, 2017

The 2016 Olympic 200m silver medalist and 100m bronze medalist, Andre De Grasse, has withdrawn from the London World Championships slated to start this Friday, August 4th.

Earlier today, De Grasse’s agent announced the 22-year old Canadian suffered a hamstring injury in training and would be out for the next six weeks. With this being Bolt’s last hurrah before retirement, it looks like De Grasse, who has been vocal about wanting to beat Bolt, will never get his chance.

Fans of track and field have every right to be disappointed. Track is a sport that, for the most part, lacks the petty rivalries and casual beefs that make other sporting storylines more interesting. With De Grasse and Bolt, a true rivalry has been brewing since De Grasse attempted to snake Bolt at the line in the 200m semi-finals in last year’s Olympics.

Bolt gave the young gun a playful finger wag, and the world rejoiced as it seemed Bolt himself chose his predecessor once he’s retired.

Then 2017 rolled around, and track fans finally had some bonafide BEEF on their hands. De Grasse accused Bolt of using his clout to bar De Grasse from entering the Monaco Diamond League 100m in attempt to avoid a head-to-head match up before London.

Bolt, obviously, called poppycock. Later, in an interview with the Daily Mail, he said that he was greatly disrespected by the guy he thought was going to replace him on the world stage. Beef confirmed.

With the preliminary rounds of the 100m starting Friday, track fans had plenty to look forward to. Until this afternoon. No more De Grasse. No more beef. Even without it, though, Bolt isn’t one to toe the line without putting on a show.

Ryan Sterner

Hobby jogger and soup enthusiast whose work has appeared in a number of highly esteemed publications such as Flotrack, The Howard Lake Herald Journal and Ebaum's World. Currently a resident of Los Angeles, where he spends most of his time indoors.