Arop aims for his 1st Diamond League Trophy before world 800m title defence
Canadian record holder Marco Arop will try to run to his first Diamond League Trophy victory in five attempts this week in Zürich.
There was some doubt the reigning world 800-metre champion would be added to the race after Arop's fifth-place finish last Wednesday at the Athletissima track and field meet in Lausanne, Switzerland moved him two spots to eighth in the season standings. Only the top seven automatically secure a lane in the 800 for the Final, scheduled for Thursday at 3:20 p.m. ET.
In each discipline, organizers of the Weltklasse Zürich event can invite one national wild card from the host country, providing their standard is adequate to compete at the level of others in the field.
"It's their rule, we can't change it. Therefore, we don't focus on it," Arop's coach, Chris Woods, told CBC Sports over the weekend. "Our plan is to continue to train and prepare for upcoming competitions."
However, meet organizers chose not to select Ivan Pelizza, the highest-ranked Swiss athlete in the 800m season standings at 23, or one of his teammates.
The 24-year-old has a season-best time of one minute 44.53 seconds, compared 1:42.22 for Arop, the 2024 Olympic silver medallist from Edmonton. Pelizza has also never competed at a world championship or Olympics.
No other Swiss 800m runners occupy a spot inside the top 100 in the world rankings while Arop is second behind Kenyan rival and reigning Olympic gold medallist Emmanuel Wanyonyi.
WATCH | Arop clocks 1:43.91 for 5th in Switzerland:
As of Saturday, Woods said there wasn't an alternative race plan ahead of the Sept. 13-21 World Athletics Championships should Arop not have received an invite to the Diamond League Final.
When the season-ending competition has been held in Brussels, the track there has nine lanes, so the top eight from the season standings qualified along with a potential national wild card. But there are only eight lanes at Zürich's Letzigrund Stadium.
3rd in 2024 Diamond League FinalThe seven automatic qualifiers in the 800 for the Final include Wanyonyi, American Josh Hoey (28), Spain's Mohamed Attaoui (25), Burgin (23) of Great Britain, Tshepiso Masalela of Botswana (21), American Bryce Hoppel (20) and Algeria's Djamel Sedjati (19).
Arop was fourth in his 2021 Diamond League Final debut and second each of the next two years before slipping to third last Sept. 14 in Brussels.
He got off to an early lead but ultimately faded, clocking 1:43.25. Wanyonyi, who was fresh off his Olympic win in Paris, surged in the final lap to overtake Sedjati and Arop to win in 1:42.70. Sedjati took second in 1:42.86.
Arop had arrived in Belgium brimming with confidence after lowering his national record to two minutes 13.13 seconds across 1,000 metres for the meet record at a World Athletics Continental Tour event in Zagreb, Croatia.
Last Wednesday, Arop excited Canadian fans by passing Wanyonyi and Burgin on the outside for the lead about 200 metres to the finish line at a rainy Stade de la Pontaise. But he dropped off the pace seconds later, perhaps by design due to the weather and track conditions.
Hoey unleashed a powerful kick, pulling away from Arop, Wanyonyi and Burgin over the final 20 metres for his first Diamond League victory in 1:42.82.
Arop entered the race 10th in the standings but gained four points from his placing on Wednesday to finish with 15, one more than Gabriel Tual of Italy who was not in the nine-man field.
"Marco ran the race as he saw fit. We're working on some things," said Woods, who didn't elaborate. "He tried it, didn't get the result we wanted. We'll go at it again, hopefully, on the 28th."
The final regular-season Diamond League track and field meet was Friday in Brussels, where the men's 800 was not contested.
Arop had set a pre-season goal to qualify for the Final but had a late start on the circuit after devoting time to the Grand Slam Track tour, which was forced to cancel the fourth and final meet of its inaugural season earlier in the summer.
He delivered a 1:42.22 season best at the London Diamond League meet on July 19 and two weeks later won his fourth consecutive Canadian title and fifth overall.
Wanyonyi, who was seeking a third straight Diamond League win, was second (1:43.29) in Lausanne and had his four-race win streak halted. Spaniard Mohamed Attaoui (1:43.38) placed third. Arop clocked 1:43.91 after placing second to Wanyonyi in Lausanne last Aug. 22 in 1:41.72.
Arop and Wanyonyi will need to be mindful of Hoey in Zurich and, potentially Tokyo, should he gain a wild-card berth for worlds by winning the Diamond League Final Trophy. The 25-year-old from Downingtown, Pa., was second behind Arop at the third and final Grand Slam Track event of the season on May 25 in Philadelphia, and then reached the finish less than a second after the victorious Wanyonyi on July 11 in Monaco.
In July, the 26-year-old told Arop told The Canadian Press he was in the best shape of his life and "excited to prove it."
Sarah Mitton will be the only other Canadian athlete competing at the Diamond League Final, looking for a second straight title and $30.000 US top prize in women's shot put.
Priscilla Lopes-Schliep (100m hurdles, 2010), shot putter Dylan Armstrong (2011) and sprinter Andre De Grasse, who captured the men's 200m title in 2023, are Canada's other Diamond League Trophy winners.
Mitton gained further momentum for Wednesday's competition at 11:05 a.m. ET by placing second to back-to-back world champion Chase Jackson of the United States. Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands, who took silver behind Mitton at the indoor world championships earlier this year, was third.
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