Canada’s Marco Arop wins silver in Olympic men’s 800 metres

Another photo finish, but a different result for Canada.

Marco Arop just missed becoming Canada’s first-ever Olympic champion in the men’s 800 metres, finishing one-hundredth of a second behind winner Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya.

The thrilling finish came mere hours after Canadian canoeist Katie Vincent won her sprint by one-hundredth of a second to take gold.

Arop’s silver is Canada’s 26th medal at Paris 2024.

Wanyonyi finished in one minute, 41.19 seconds, just ahead of Arop’s national-record time. Djamel Sedjati of Algeria won bronze in 1:41.50. They are the third- and fourth-fastest times in the history of the event.

Arop charged from seventh to second in the second and final lap.

The result was a flip from the 2023 world championships when Arop, 25, took gold and Wanyonyi grabbed silver.

Arop is the first Canadian to hit the Olympic podium in the men’s 800 since Bill Crothers took silver at the 1964 Tokyo Games.

Arop took bronze at the world championships in 2022 and missed the final at the Olympics in 2021 in Tokyo.

The Canadian won his semifinal heat to book a spot in the Olympic final.