In what turned out to be a race of record depth, Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi won the men’s 800m at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 in a championship record of 1:41.86.
With a gun-to-tape strategy – similar to the one he used last year when winning the Olympic title in Paris, also in a sub-1:42 time – he managed to hold off a fierce challenge from Canada’s defending champion Marco Arop and a fast-finishing Djamel Sedjati of Algeria.
In complete contrast to Wednesday’s 1500m final, when many podium contenders did not make it through the rounds, all the main favourites were on the start line for the final of the two-lap race.
The winning trio topped this season’s world rankings and shared the podium at last year’s Olympics, when Arop placed second and Sedjati third. This time, they reversed roles: Sedjati claiming silver in 1:41.90, while Arop took bronze in 1:41.95.
“I didn’t take this race for granted,” said Wanyonyi after securing Kenya’s eighth world title in the men’s 800m. “I wanted to do everything to secure the gold. Now I need to defend this title. I want to be a double world champion. Maybe I will start to think about the world record too.”
In the final, the Kenyan 21-year-old set a fast pace from the start, running the first lap in 49.26 – two hundredths of a second faster than his compatriot Rudisha did in the Olympic final in London 13 years ago, when he set the world record of 1:40.91. Rudisha watched his successor’s triumph live at the Japan National Stadium, in the company of World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, who held the 800m world record from 1979 to 1997.
“I met Rudisha yesterday. He told me just to take a rest and focus, and everything is possible,” said Wanyonyi. “The race was fast and hard. I knew it was going to be like this. I prepared myself mentally for it. I wanted to run a fast race, that’s why I went to the lead. I wanted to run my personal best here and I am happy to walk away with the championship record. I knew lactic acid was going to hit me.”
His fast pace led to one of the fastest 800m races in history; it was the first time that eight men had finished inside 1:43 in a single race.
Cian McPhillips lowered his Irish record by more than a second to finish fourth in 1:42.15. Spain’s Mohamed Attaoui, who challenged for a podium position coming off the last bend, finished fifth in 1:42.21. Great Britain’s Max Burgin set a personal best of 1:42.29, while Jamaica’s Navasky Anderson produced a national record of 1:42.76 in seventh.
“It was a very tactical race,” said Sedjati. “Everything happened in the way I planned, except the gold medal. But I’m very happy and satisfied with this silver.”
After the race, Sedjati delivered a special message to teammate Yasser Triki, who had finished fourth in the triple jump final: “Don’t cry, believe in yourself, you deserve better than this. I dedicate my medal to you.”
Third-placed Arop said he doesn’t know if he would have changed anything tactically. “I figured by going out fast it would be harder for everyone to kick at the end,” said the Canadian. “I wanted to stay in the front and stay strong the whole way. Four medals in the last four major global championships is the kind of consistency we strive for.”
Lucijan Zandokar for World Athletics
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