"Canada who?" - Denis Shapovalov takes sly dig at Noah Lyles as he celebrates Canada's 4x100m relay gold win at Paris Olympics 2024
Denis Shapovalov celebrated Canada's historic win in the men's 4x100m relay at the 2024 Olympic Games. He seized the opportunity to also subtly address comments made by Noah Lyles from earlier this year where he downplayed them as a threat.
The Canadian team consisting of Andre De Grasse, Brendon Rodney, Jerome Blake and Aaron Brown stunned everyone in attendance at the Stade de France on Friday night with a spectacular run in the finals. They quartet registered a winning time of 37.5 seconds with their stalwart De Grasse leading from the front with a spectacular final leg.
The South Africans took second place in 37.57 seconds, while Great Britain came in third in 37.61 seconds, leaving no space on the podium for the hot favorites U.S., who were disqualified yet again due to a botched changeover of batons.
Canadian tennis star Shapovalov ecstatically celebrated their triumph earlier today on his social media handles, while simultaneously taking a subtle dig at the Olympic 100m champion Lyles for his comments about them from earlier this year.
"Canada who???" Shapovalov exclaimed on his Instagram.
Lyles ruffled feathers at the World Athletics Relay in the Bahamas in May, where he laughed off Canada as a serious contender in the 4x100m for Paris.
“Who? Who?" Lyles was quoted as saying in response to a reporter who questioned him wether he saw the Canadian relay team as a threat.
The Canadians, however, ended up having the last laugh. Lyles, who was sidelined with covid, didn't even take part, with the U.S. eventually getting disqualified due to an illegal exchange between Christian Coleman and Kenny Bednarek on the first handover.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also joined in the fun after their victory, making sure to remind Lyles about his premature take on their chances.
Denis Shapovalov suffers first round setback at home
Denis Shapovalov suffered a shock loss in his Montreal opener to American Brandon Nakashima in straight sets 6-4, 7-5, failing to replicate his heroics from Washington D.C. from a week earlier.
Marred by inconsistency on his serve and at the net, Shapovalov was easily broken in both sets by an in-form Nakashima. He was equally ineffective on the return, failing to convert any of the four break point oppurtunities presented to him.
"Thanks for the love and support this week and always Canada. Always a huge honor to play at home!!" Shapovalov wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The World No. 106 now holds a 15-19 win-loss record so far in the 2024 season, with a quarterfinal run at the Citi Open being his best performance so far.