No Canadian showdown: De Grasse pulls out from 100m Diamond League race with injury

So much for the Canadian battle in the men’s 100 meters in Stockholm.

Olympic gold medallist Andre De Grasse pulled out of the race due to a groin injury on Sunday, spoiling the chance of a showdown with fellow Canadian Aaron Brown in the season’s seventh Diamond League meet.

The two Toronto natives competed in the 200m event on Friday in Lausanne, Switzerland, when Brown came out on top, but their next clash in Diamond League will have to wait.

Brown finished fifth in Sunday’s race with a time of 10.27 seconds, powering through the wet conditions at the Olympic Stadium.

South Africa’s Akani Simbine took the victory, crossing the line in 10.03. Reece Prescott of the UK finished second while Germany’s Joshua Hartman rounded out the podium.

WATCH | Brown races through wet conditions in Sweden:

Canada’s Aaron Brown gets 5th place 100m finish in Stockholm

The Canadian sprinter ran a 10.27 time in the Diamond League event in Sweden.

The Canadian moved to third in the Diamond League 100m rankings with the result.

Fellow Canadian sprinter Jerome Blake finished third in the national-level 100m with a time of 10.30, in a race that doesn’t count toward Diamond League points.

The Kelowna, BC, natively finished behind Germany’s Hartman, who won the event, and South Africa’s Ben Richardson.

The next Diamond League stop is set for July 16 in Chorzów, Poland, just over a month from the world championships in Hungary.

Protesters disrupt the 400m hurdles race

Olympic champion Karsten Warholm won his 400m hurdles race and then turned to join in the crowd booing environmental protesters who disrupted his Diamond League event near the finish.

Three people kneeled on the track about eight meters from the line holding two banners that spanned from lanes one to six, forcing runners to break through them. No athlete appeared to be hurt.

Warholm running in lane eight had no barrier in his way though seemed distracted, with a fourth apparent protester squatting in lane seven seeming to photograph the incident.

He was visibly angry with the demonstrators as they were led away while the spectators boomed.

The Norwegian star later told national broadcaster NRK the protest was disrespectful to athletes doing their job.

Warholm’s winning time on a cool, rainy evening was 47.57 seconds, well outside his 45.94 world record set at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago.

An unusual evening’s work for Warholm included warming up in a parking garage in downtown Stockholm so that, he said later, he could arrive “dry and warm coming to the start.”

Duplantis falls just short of the pole vault world record

The rain wreaked havoc with numerous events, particularly the much-anticipated men’s pole vault featuring local hero Armand Duplantis.

The event was delayed for more than two hours due to safety concerns. Fans stuck around to watch more than an hour after every other event had finished and vaulters cradled cups of tea to keep warm.

Duplantis, the Olympic and world champion, cleared 6.05m on his first attempt to win. He then missed on three attempts at 6.23, which would have topped his world record of 6.22.