Canada’s Andre De Grasse eliminated in men’s 100-m semifinals

Andre De Grasse’s Olympic medal streak is over.

Six-for-six hitting the podium at the Summer Games entering Paris, the Canadian was eliminated in the semifinals of the men’s 100 metres on Sunday.

De Grasse, 29, was fifth in his heat and 12th overall in a season-best 9.98 seconds, with only the top eight advancing to the final later Sunday.

The native of Markham, Ont., barely qualified for the semis, taking the third and final spot in his heat at 10.07 seconds.

De Grasse’s best time this year (10.00 seconds) was just tied for 33rd in the world entering Paris, so he was not considered a strong medal contender in this event.

De Grasse, one of Canada’s flag-bearers at the opening ceremony, still has the 200 metres and 4×100-metre relay on his schedule at the meet.

In the final run late Sunday, Noah Lyles of the United States won the gold medal in one of the closest sprints in history.

The word “Photo” popped up on the scoreboard next to the names of Lyles, Kishane Thompson of Jamaica and five others after they crossed the line. Lyles paced the track with his hands draped over his head. Finally, the numbers came up. Lyles won in 9.784 seconds to edge out the Jamaican by .005 seconds.

America’s Fred Kerley came in third at 9.81. The top seven all finished within .09 of each other.

This was the closest 1-2 finish in the 100 since at least Moscow in 1980 — or maybe even ever. Back then, Britain’s Allan Wells narrowly beat Silvio Leonard in an era when the electronic timers didn’t go down into the thousandths of a second.

Lyles became the first American to win the marquee event in Olympic track since Justin Gatlin in 2004.