Initially of 2024, nobody would have dared to foretell that David Rudisha’s iconic 800m world report of 1:40.91, set on the 2012 London Olympics, was below risk. Heading into this season, 18 of the 20 quickest instances in historical past had been run earlier than 2013, and no athlete had damaged the 1:42.00 barrier since Rudisha’s legendary race at London 2012. But, simply 9 months into the 2024 season, the 800m panorama has fully shifted. 5 athletes have dipped below the 1:42 mark, and have come inside two-tenths of a second of Rudisha’s report. The query is now not whether or not the report will fall, however when.
Main this cost is Edmonton’s Marco Arop, who just lately clocked a nationwide report of 1:41.20 on the 2024 Olympic Video games. The time, which might have received him gold at almost each Olympic Video games (besides two), earned him a silver medal. Arop was only one hundredth of a second behind Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi, who crossed the road in 1:41.19 for gold.
Arop’s efficiency within the Olympic 800m last was nothing wanting spectacular. He shaved an astounding 1.6 seconds off his earlier private finest—a exceptional achievement on the world-class stage, the place even the smallest enhancements could make the distinction between gold, silver and bronze.
The 25-year-old is assured that his finest races are nonetheless forward of him. “I feel we’re positively able to breaking the report, both this yr or subsequent,” Arop instructed Canadian Working in an interview. “The world report has been behind my thoughts for a very long time, and I wish to go after it earlier than it’s too late.”
When requested concerning the elements driving these lightning-fast instances, Arop pointed to a number of key components. “I feel the spikes, the observe, and the truth that so many 800m athletes are of their prime play a giant function,” he defined. He’s proper—of the eight males within the Paris Olympic last, the oldest was simply 26, and the typical age was 23.8, making it the youngest last amongst all males’s observe occasions on the 2024 Video games.
Arop additionally identified the rising use of the Maurten bicarbonate complement amongst his opponents. This complement, designed to boost an athlete’s endurance, primarily consists of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), which helps buffer lactic acid in muscular tissues throughout high-intensity train. Excessive-profile athletes like Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Nice Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson and Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge have all endorsed its advantages.
Arop revealed he started incorporating the bicarbonate complement into his coaching simply weeks earlier than the 2024 Olympics. “Everybody else was utilizing it, so I attempted it, and it labored wonders,” he mentioned.
The 2024 season isn’t over but, and Arop can have yet another shot on the world report on the Diamond League last in Brussels on Sept. 13 and 14. The boys’s 800m Diamond League last, set for Sunday, will probably characteristic a showdown between the three Olympic medallists—Arop, Wanyonyi and Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati. With the Diamond League trophy and a prime prize of USD $30,000 on the road, the stage is ready for a race that might rewrite the report books.
