Marco Arop speeds to new Canadian indoor 800m record
Arop, the world champion in the 800m, kicked off the 2024 season with a personal best and new national record of 1:45.51
Photo by:
Kevin Morris
Edmonton’s Marco Arop has started 2024 off with a bang, setting a new Canadian indoor 800m record of 1:45.51 in the 800m at the Razorback Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark. on Saturday. Arop, the world 800m champion, won the race by one and a half seconds—eclipsing his own record (and personal best) of 1:45.90.
The 2023 season was a standout year for Arop, upgrading his 2022 world championship bronze in the men’s 800m to gold at the 2023 World Athletics Championships. A month later, at the Diamond League final in Eugene, Ore., Arop broke the Canadian 800m record of 1:43.20, held by his former collegiate teammate and training partner Brandon McBride. Arop took second place in that final in 1:42:85, beaten at the line by rising star Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya.
Arop is set to headline the men’s 1,000m at the 2024 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on Feb. 4, aiming to run a personal best and break the Canadian record of 2:16.87.
Evan Dunfee sets new Canadian 10,000m race walk record
Across the world, Canadian Olympic bronze medallist Dunfee opened his season with a new personal best and national record of 38:25.42 in the 10,000m race walk in Canberra, Australia, at Supernova: World Athletics Race Walking Tour Bronze meet. Dunfee, from Richmond, B.C., told press post-race that the race was the first big test of the year for him, and called it his “best-executed race ever.”
At the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Dunfee took fourth in the 20K race walk event, setting a new Canadian record time of 1:18:03. He went on to also finish fourth in the 35K race walk, having torn his hamstring around 32 km into the race.
Postrace on Saturday, Dunfee said he had followed his race plan to come in from behind for a negative split. “These are the kind of tactics I’ll need if I want a shot at a medal in Paris, so really pleased,” Dunfee wrote on Instagram.
Ben Flanagan dips under Olympic standard in 5,000m
Kitchener, Ont.’s Ben Flanagan ran a nearly seven-second personal best of 13:04.62, taking fifth in the 5,000m at the John Terrier Classic in Boston on Friday night. His time is now the third-fastest Canadian men’s indoor mark in history and is under the Paris 2024 Olympic standard of 13:05.
In 2023, Flanagan shattered the men’s Canadian 5K record at the B.A.A. 5K in Boston, taking second in the race and breaking the previous Canadian record by ten seconds in 13:26.
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