Yellowknife mother excited as son's quest for Olympic relay gold begins

It's finally time for Yellowknife's Carlene Smith her son, Akeem Haynes, is set to runthis morning as part of Canada's Olympic 4x100m relay team.

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The Canadian relay team will race at 8:40 MT Thursday morning in a semifinal heat, hoping to qualify for Friday's final. Powered by individual bronze medallist Andre De Grasse, the team is seen as a strong threat to take home a medal in Rio, with Haynes right in the thick of things he led off a relay for Canada in June that resulted in 2016's fastest time to that point.

Haynes, who lived in Yellowknife from age5 to 10, is "in good spirits," said his mother.

"He said: 'it's gonna be good, Mom. It's gonna be good.'"

Though the relay is Haynes' best chance to take home some hardware from Rio, it is not his Olympic debut. That came earlier in the week in the 100m qualifying races, in which he finished with a time of 10.22 seconds the fastest time of any sprinter who did not advance to the semifinals.

Despite the setback, Smith says it was "amazing" to see her son line up against the world's best at the Olympics.

"I cannot forget that feeling in my stomach," she said. "It was awesome. I was like: 'wow, really? That's my son!'"

Smith said her son is loose and confident heading into the relay, and had a bold prediction of her own.

"He's going to bring home a gold, silver, bronze. Any one. He's going to bring something home."