Marco Arop will be among eight finalists looking to become the first ever men’s 800m champion in the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship.
The three-day event, held in Budapest, Hungary, is a biennial end-of-season meet newly added to the World Athletics calendar.
The format of the new event features an exclusive invite list – only world champions, Olympic champions, Diamond League winners and the year’s leading athletes are invited.
Arop, the 2023 world champion in the 800m, finished sixth overall in Saturday’s race, with a time of one minute, 44.21 seconds.
Another unique feature to the Ultimate Championships is the complete absence of qualification heats. Saturday’s 800m semifinal was the first stage in the event, with 16 runners competing for eight spots. Arop, needing to finish within the top four in his heat to qualify for Sunday’s final, finished third.
Sunday’s final will include the 2025 world champion, and Paris 2024 Olympic gold medallist Emmanuel Wanyonyi, who narrowly moved through to the final despite the ninth best time overall.
Mark English of Ireland came away with the top time on Sunday, racing to 1:43.74. He is the 2026 European Champion in the 800m.
Elsewhere in Budapest, Audrey Leduc and Sade McCreath did not manage to qualify beyond the semifinal round in the women’s 100m. Leduc finished 0.18 off of the final qualifying time, racing to a time of 11.26 seconds. McCreath finished in 17th place with a time of 11.39 seconds.
High hopes were held for one of Canada’s top athletes, Ethan Katzberg competing in the men’s hammer throw on Friday. The Paris 2024 Olympic champion was one of the gold medal favourites, but Katzberg failed to land either of his first two throws within the boundaries, and was subsequently eliminated.
Also on Friday, Christopher Morales-Williams narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 400m men’s final, as he finished just 0.58 seconds behind Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards for the final spot.
Arop will not be the only Canadian competing on Sunday, as both the semi-final and final for the men’s 200m will take place. Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown will look to get past the semifinal and advance to the final taking place later that night.
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