Firstly of 2024, nobody would have dared to foretell that David Rudisha’s iconic 800m world file of 1:40.91, set on the 2012 London Olympics, was below menace. Heading into this season, 18 of the 20 quickest occasions 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 file. The query is now not whether or not the file will fall, however when.
Main this cost is Edmonton’s Marco Arop, who just lately clocked a nationwide file of 1:41.20 on the 2024 Olympic Video games. The time, which might have received him gold at practically 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 ultimate was nothing in need of spectacular. He shaved an astounding 1.6 seconds off his earlier private greatest—a exceptional achievement on the world-class degree, the place even the smallest enhancements could make the distinction between gold, silver and bronze.
The 25-year-old is assured that his greatest races are nonetheless forward of him. “I believe we’re undoubtedly able to breaking the file, both this yr or subsequent,” Arop advised Canadian Working in an interview. “The world file has been at the back of my thoughts for a very long time, and I need to go after it earlier than it’s too late.”
When requested concerning the elements driving these lightning-fast occasions, Arop pointed to a number of key parts. “I believe the spikes, the observe, and the truth that so many 800m athletes are of their prime play a giant position,” he defined. He’s proper—of the eight males within the Paris Olympic ultimate, the oldest was simply 26, and the common age was 23.8, making it the youngest ultimate 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 muscle groups 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 stated.
The 2024 season isn’t over but, and Arop can have yet one more shot on the world file on the Diamond League ultimate in Brussels on Sept. 13 and 14. The lads’s 800m Diamond League ultimate, set for Sunday, will doubtless function 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 would rewrite the file books.
