What to watch this weekend in sports

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Here are some things for Canadian fans to keep an eye on:

Track and field: The Canadian men's relay team is back 

Olympic 4x100m champions Andre De Grasse, Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake and Brendon Rodney are competing in the World Athletics Relays in China, their first big event since their stunning victory in Paris last summer.

Last year's World Relays in the Bahamas were a big stepping stone for the boys, who took silver behind the United States and earned an Olympic berth. This time, they'll be trying to secure a spot in the world championships in Tokyo in September.

The top two finishers in each of the four opening-round heats on Saturday at 8:25 a.m. ET get into the worlds and advance to the final on Sunday at 9:26 a.m. ET, where they'll race for the $40,000 US top prize. The other teams go to a second-chance qualifying round on Sunday at 8:32 a.m. ET, where the top two in each of the three heats receive a spot in the worlds.

Canada's opponents include the United States, which is without Olympic and world 100m champion Noah Lyles but will feature back-to-back Olympic 200m silver medallist Kenny Bednarek; Jamaica, led by Olympic 100m runner-up Kishane Thompson; and South Africa, which finished just 0.07 of a second behind Canada to take the silver in Paris.

Canada also has teams in the women's 4x100m and 4x400m after finishing sixth in both events at the Olympics, as well as the mixed 4x100m and 4x400m. The mixed 4x100 event is making its global debut and won't be part of this year's world championships, but it was recently added to the Olympic program for 2028 in Los Angeles.

You can watch the World Athletics Relays live on Saturday and Sunday from 7-10 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. Here's the full schedule and here's more on the Canadian men's 4x100m team from CBC Sports' Justin Piercy.

Hockey: Sidney Crosby returns to the world championship

The men's hockey world championship usually isn't worth paying much attention to. It takes place at the same time as the Stanley Cup playoffs, and it's far from a "best on best" tournament as most star players are either still playing for their NHL teams or choose not to go.

But, after the fantastic 4 Nations Face-Off in February and with the Winter Olympics coming up next year, there's a lot of appetite for international hockey right now. And Canada's team for this  world championship, which opens Friday in Sweden and Denmark, features some big names.

Sidney Crosby, who captained Canada to the 4 Nations title with five points in four games, returns to the worlds for the first time in a decade. He's joined by his Nova Scotia pal Nathan MacKinnon, the reigning NHL MVP, and Crosby's former Pittsburgh Penguins teammate Marc-Andre Fleury, who's taking a victory lap after announcing his retirement from the NHL. High-scoring youngsters Macklin Celebrini (25 goals as a rookie with San Jose) and Adam Fantilli (31 in his second year with Columbus) are also on the squad.

Each team plays seven group-stage games, and the top four in each group advance to the quarter-finals. Canada opens against Slovenia on Saturday at 6:20 a.m. ET, then plays Latvia on Sunday at 10:20 a.m. ET. The Canadians' other group opponents are France, Austria, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden.

Other stuff to watch:

* Canadian golfers Corey Conners, Nick Taylor, Taylor Pendrith and Adam Hadwin are playing in the Truist Championship in Philadelphia, one of the PGA Tour's $20-million US "signature" events. With the PGA Championship coming up next week at Quail Hollow, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is sitting this one out after winning the Byron Nelson on Sunday for his first title of the year. But Rory McIlroy is back for his first individual event since his thrilling Masters victory to complete the career Grand Slam. Here's the live leaderboard.

* A bunch of Canadian tennis players are competing in the clay-court Italian Open, the last big tuneup for the French Open. Coming off his breakthrough run to the quarterfinals of the clay Madrid Open, Gabriel Diallo was eliminated in the first round in Rome today. Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov, seeded 26th and 27th, have yet to see the court after receiving byes to the second round. On the women's side, No. 24 Leylah Fernandez also had a bye, while Bianca Andreescu and 18-year-old qualifier Victoria Mboko both reached the second round. Gabriela Dabrowski and her New Zealander teammate Erin Routliffe are seeded No. 1 in women's doubles.

* The Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's three Grand Tours, begins Friday and continues for the next three weeks. The Canadian to watch is Derek Gee, who finished ninth overall in his Tour de France debut last year. Gee placed 22nd in his Giro debut in 2023, and was the runner-up in both the points and mountains classifications.