Wednesday, August 7
Navasky Anderson (JAM), Marco Arop (CAN)
4:55 AM
Mississippi State
vs
Men's 800m First Round
Photo by: Getty Images
Arop Cruises To Semifinals, Anderson To Run Repechage Thursday
August 07, 2024 | Track & Field, Olympic Games
PARIS, France – Marco Arop cruised through the first round of the men's 800m at the Paris Olympic Games, finishing second in his heat to advance to the semifinals.
The Mississippi State school record and Canadian national record holder was happy to let the field go out well ahead of him, waiting until 300m into the race to start moving up. At the bell, he was in fifth, but he steadily climbed into a top three position coming off the final turn. Down the stretch, he challenged the heat winner, Eliott Crestan (BEL), but was satisfied with a qualifying position and a 1:45.74 finish.
Under the new format introduced this year, the top three athletes in each heat advance to Friday's semifinals. All other athletes get a second chance to qualify on Thursday morning in the new repechage round.
Jamaica's Navasky Anderson will be one of those athletes after he finished fifth in his heat. Anderson sat at the back of the heat through 500m but began to challenge runners ahead of him with 200m left and finished in 1:46.82. He will run in the second heat of the repechage round, which also features Spain's Adrian Ben, who clocked the fourth-fastest first round time, but finished fourth in his heat.
The men's 800m is the only event on the Olympic card this year where the defending Olympic gold medalist is absent. Arop is the reigning world champion and looking to become just the second man to win Olympic gold as the defending world champion. A medal for him would also be Canada's first medal in the two-lap race since 1964, and the nation has never won gold.
Meanwhile, for Anderson simply reaching the final would be historic as no Jamaican man has done so since 1964. The island has just one medalist in the distance, and it was the first medalist in the nation's history back when Arthur Wint won silver in 1948 and 1952.
Anderson's repechage heat is scheduled for 5:08 a.m. CT on Thursday morning and will air on USA Network. Results will be available on Olympics.com along with MSU's State to Paris webpage and social media feeds.
For more information on the Bulldog track and field program, follow on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram by searching "HailStateTF."
The Mississippi State school record and Canadian national record holder was happy to let the field go out well ahead of him, waiting until 300m into the race to start moving up. At the bell, he was in fifth, but he steadily climbed into a top three position coming off the final turn. Down the stretch, he challenged the heat winner, Eliott Crestan (BEL), but was satisfied with a qualifying position and a 1:45.74 finish.
Under the new format introduced this year, the top three athletes in each heat advance to Friday's semifinals. All other athletes get a second chance to qualify on Thursday morning in the new repechage round.
Jamaica's Navasky Anderson will be one of those athletes after he finished fifth in his heat. Anderson sat at the back of the heat through 500m but began to challenge runners ahead of him with 200m left and finished in 1:46.82. He will run in the second heat of the repechage round, which also features Spain's Adrian Ben, who clocked the fourth-fastest first round time, but finished fourth in his heat.
The men's 800m is the only event on the Olympic card this year where the defending Olympic gold medalist is absent. Arop is the reigning world champion and looking to become just the second man to win Olympic gold as the defending world champion. A medal for him would also be Canada's first medal in the two-lap race since 1964, and the nation has never won gold.
Meanwhile, for Anderson simply reaching the final would be historic as no Jamaican man has done so since 1964. The island has just one medalist in the distance, and it was the first medalist in the nation's history back when Arthur Wint won silver in 1948 and 1952.
Anderson's repechage heat is scheduled for 5:08 a.m. CT on Thursday morning and will air on USA Network. Results will be available on Olympics.com along with MSU's State to Paris webpage and social media feeds.
For more information on the Bulldog track and field program, follow on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram by searching "HailStateTF."
Players Mentioned
800m
/ Olympic Games
800m
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