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Canada's Andre De Grasse sprints to victory in the men's 100 metre dash on Wednesday night. De Grasse won the gold medal with a time of 10.05 seconds.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

The future of Canadian sprinting strode to the start line just before 8:50 p.m. Wednesday night at York University. Andre De Grasse shuffled one way, then the other, looking down, his face a mask of concentration as he prepared to perform on the biggest stage yet of his young, accelerating career – the men's 100-metre final of the Pan American Games.

Still just 20, Mr. De Grasse is an overnight sensation in the world of high-level athletics. He was running virtually in his own backyard, in front of a supportive, sold-out crowd – hours before, the asking price on the secondary market exceeded $300 a ticket – mad to see what the next big thing looks like.

On this night, it looked pretty good. The temperature was dropping, the wind slightly behind the runners when Mr. De Grasse rushed out of the pack to take the gold medal in a time of 10.05 seconds, just two one-hundredths ahead of second-place finisher Ramon Gittens of Barbados. It wasn't his fastest time, but victory was sweet all the same.

"To do this at home, it's just a wonderful feeling right now," an elated Mr. De Grasse told a post-race interviewer.

"Andre De Grasse is something special," said Caryl Smith Gilbert, his coach at the University of Southern California (USC). "I've never seen anything like it in my life, and I'm not sure if I ever will again." She added: "I love his finish, hate his start, but you get into a Pan Am Games situation, we don't worry about the time – you just take the W."

Of course, there are caveats: In an Olympic year, the winner of the men's 100-metre dash is considered the world's fastest human. But the world's fastest human, Usain Bolt of Jamaica, gave the Pan Am Games a pass, his preparation geared toward the upcoming world championships in Beijing. Mr. De Grasse, though, captured Canada's first gold in the 100 metres since 1995, continuing a season-long dash to stardom and raising hopes for an era of Canadian sprint success not seen for two decades, since the days of Donovan Bailey.

The real irony: Until three months ago, only the most serious track aficionados would have been aware of Mr. De Grasse's existence.

Since then, his story has been splashed across front pages everywhere. How the Toronto-area kid began his track career almost by accident, after showing up at a meet in basketball shorts and borrowed spikes and catching the eye of a coach and former Olympian Tony Sharpe, who happened to be there to watch one of his own sprinters compete. How Mr. Sharpe brought Mr. De Grasse into the fold of his track club and helped him land a scholarship at tiny Coffeyville Community College in Kansas. How, after he'd set all kinds of junior college records, the big schools came after Mr. De Grasse, and he eventually landed at USC.

Just last spring, he won the NCAA men's 100 metres in a wind-assisted time of 9.75 seconds, which, had it been official, would have been the seventh-fastest time in history, and the best ever by a Canadian. Earlier this month, he also won the 100 at the Canadian track and field championships in Edmonton with a time of 9.95. The Canadian record – of 9.84, jointly held by Mr. Bailey and Bruny Surin – is tantalizingly within his grasp.

What excites people most about Mr. De Grasse is his future – that he is still so raw. In Monday's qualifying heat, he was virtually last out of the starting blocks, but eventually cruised to victory in 10.06 seconds. He came from behind again in the semi-final, winning in 9.97. Once he gets comfortable, once the rough edges smooth out, the upside is thought to be massive.

As it is, the 100 may not even be his best event. Mr. De Grasse holds the Canadian record in the 200 metres, an event that begins Thursday. He also has relays to run. From here, he moves on the world championships in Beijing, the climax of a busy breakthrough season.

"Track and field has never seen a kid like this," Craig Perry, coach at Coffeyville Community College, told The Globe And Mail's Dave Ebner last month. "People want to say Usain Bolt came out of nowhere, but Usain Bolt was running world-class times when he was 15 and 16 years old. When Andre De Grasse was 15, 16 years old, he was … playing basketball."

But the basketball shorts have been retired, and the arc of Mr. De Grasse's career is continuing to surge straight up.

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