World champion Marco Arop to open season at New Balance Indoor Grand Prix

After concluding his 2023 campaign with a record-setting performance, 800m world champion Marco Arop from Edmonton is set to open the Olympic year at the 2024 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on Feb. 4. Arop will headline the men’s 1,000m, aiming run a personal best and break the Canadian record of 2:16.87.

World champions Gudaf Tsegay 🇪🇹, @Flaamingoo_ 🇺🇸 and Marco Arop 🇨🇦 to race at @NBIndoorGP.#WorldIndoorTour

— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) December 20, 2023

This will be Arop’s third appearance at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix. Arop will compete against a strong field with the reigning world indoor 800m champion Mariano García of Spain, and bronze medalist American Bryce Hoppel.

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, beat at the line by rising star Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya.

Despite Arop holding the Canadian record for the 1,000m outdoors (2:14.35), he does not have the Canadian indoor record for the distance. The indoor 1,000m record belongs to former Canadian middle-distance runner Nathan Brannen, who ran 2:16.87 at the Boston University track in 2014. Arop’s personal best for 1,000m indoors (2:17.10) was set in 2021, and it was just two-tenths of a second shy of Brannen’s record.

Also returning to the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix is Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, the 5,000m world record holder. Tsegay, a versatile athlete, is the reigning world champion at 10,000m and currently holds the world 1,500m record indoors. Tsegay will headline the women’s 1,500m against North American talent.

Arop and Tsegay join the list of previously announced athletes, including 100m world champion Noah Lyles, Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Gabby Thomas and former 1,500m world champion Jake Wightman.

The 2024 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix can be followed live from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 4, providing a thrilling prelude to the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, scheduled for early March.