Brendon Rodney believes that his men’s 4×100-metre relay team is the best in Canadian history.
At this year’s world championships, Rodney and his teammates Aaron Brown, Andre De Grasse and Jerome Blake have a chance to make that claim undeniable.
Rodney joined CBC Sports Trackside co-hosts Perdita Felicien and Brown to talk about what makes the current relay team successful, and how they match up with the Donovan Bailey-led squad of the 90s.
Mentioning that De Grasse previously said he wanted his team to be known as the best Canadian relay team ever, Felicien asked Rodney how he thinks his team stacks up now.
“We’re definitely the best, I mean, in the fact that we have the national record. It’s just the truth,” Rodney said. “I don’t think Donovan [Bailey] will admit it yet, but we are definitely the better team, [and] if we lined up by them side-by-side we would beat them.
‘We’re definitely the best’: Brendon Rodney says 4x100m squad is greatest Canadian team
“No one show that to DB, no one show that to Donovan Bailey…[Brendon] watch your back,” Felicien joked.
“I think Donovan might come out of retirement after what Brendon just said. He might get the boys back together,” Brown said later, laughing.
Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney explain what makes their Olympic relay team successful
The 90s-era team of Bailey, Glenroy Gilbert, who is currently Athletics Canada head coach, Bruny Surin and Robert Esmie won two world titles, and Olympic gold in 1996 with a then-national record time of 37.69 seconds. The prior week, Bailey captured the men’s 100-metre gold medal in a world-record time of 9.84 seconds.
Rodney, Brown, De Grasse, and Blake took Olympic gold in Paris last summer, and have one world title to their credit. That was won in Eugene, Ore., in 2022 where they set the current national record time of 37.48 seconds.
“I want to say we’re the better team, but of course the medals are what count in our sport, and we got to get the medals in order to solidify that,” Rodney said.
Reached in Jamaica, a wry smile came over Bailey’s face when he was told of Rodney’s comments. While paying respect to the “amazing” 2024 Olympic gold medallists, Bailey said the two teams shouldn’t be compared.
“First of all, I love those guys … and ultimately I’m always going to be supportive of them,” he said. “But the fact is that you’re actually having a conversation about comparing yourself to a team [from] 30 years ago is a little crazy.
“The bottom line is this: The [current] relay team is amazing, but I think you’ve got to remind Aaron, or Brendon, or Andre, and Jerome … you’ve got to remind those guys that every single major championships that I went to, I was actually having a cigar and champagne the weekend before the relay.”
Rodney, Brown, Blake and De Grasse will get their chance for more hardware after qualifying for the 2025 World Athletics Championships thanks to their results last weekend at the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, China. The team finished second in their heat on Saturday to qualify for the world championships in Tokyo before taking bronze in Sunday’s final.
Canadian men’s 4x100m team qualify for the world athletics relays final
Rodney and Brown broke down that final on Trackside, including a moment that threatened to derail their trip to the podium – a wobbly baton transfer between Brown and Blake.
“We’ll get back to the drawing board and practise more work and getting [the baton] in and having a steady target,” Brown said. “This is something that we’ve got to fix because I don’t want this to be what holds us back from getting another gold in Tokyo [at the world championships]. I definitely want to chase those guys in the 90s who have three golds, you know, two world championship golds and an Olympic gold.
“We have two golds right now. So if you want to be considered the best, you know, we’ve got to add those.”
Canadian 4×100-metre men finish 3rd at World Athletics Relay final
Asked what is left for this team to accomplish, Brown said it’s all about seeing how far they can go and how many wins they can achieve together.
“We’ve already got the top prize, which was the Olympic gold. We went from bronze in Rio [2016], silver in Tokyo [2020], and then gold,” he said. “It doesn’t get much better than that. But, now it’s just like, all right, we did it. How much more can we get as a team?”
To watch the full debut episode of Trackside by clicking on the video player below.
WATCH | CBC Sports Trackside, featuring Brendon Rodney:
