Canada's Marco Arop finishes 5th in 800m at Diamond League Monaco
Canada's Marco Arop posted a season's-best time to finish fifth in a highly-competitive men's 800 metres race at the Diamond League track and field stop in Monaco on Friday.
The field of the Meeting Herculis EBS was comprised of all eight athletes that ran in last summer's final at the Paris Olympic Games.
Arop, who won silver at Paris 2024, lingered near the back of the pack well into the second lap of Friday's race. The Edmonton native crossed the line in one minute, 42.73 seconds for his best time of 2025.
Reigning Olympic champ Emmanuel Wanyonyi won the event with a world-leading and meet record time of one minute, 41.44 seconds. American Josh Hoey was second (1:42.01) while Paris bronze medallist Djamel Sedjati, of Algeria, was third (1:42.20).
Friday marked the first Diamond League appearance of the season for Arop, who was coming off a successful first season of competition in the new Grand Slam Track league. The 26-year-old won all three 800m races in that league, and was crowned the winner of the short distance competition at the Philadelphia stop on June 1.
WATCH | Wanyonyi wins 800m in Monaco, Edmonton's Arop places 5th:
14 minutes ago
Duration 3:27
Mitton finishes 3rd
Fellow Canadian Sarah Mitton nabbed a third-place finish in the women's shot put in Monaco.
The 29-year-old from Brooklyn, N.S., had a top throw of 20m, which slotted her behind the winner, Netherlands' Jessica Schilder (20.39), and second-placed Chase Jackson (20.06), of the U.S.
Mitton, the defending world indoor and Diamond League final champ, now has finishes of fifth, fourth, third, and second place through four of five events this season. Those results give her 22 points in her bid to qualify for this year's final, which will see the top six point-getters advance to the Zurich event on Aug. 27.
Jackson sits in first place with 30 points, Schilder is in second with 27, with Mitton in third.
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