Marco Arop was part of a historically fast men’s 800 metre final and he was there every step of the way in a silver medal performance.
Arop clinched Canada’s 5th medal of these Games (3 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) and it took a personal best, Canadian record, and Americas record time of 1:41:20 to do it. His time was so fast, it is the 4th fastest time ever in the event.
Following a similar script to his semi-final win and to last year’s World Championship run, Arop hung back for the first lap, before shifting gears on the back straight and making a move for the win in the final 100 metres. Leaving most of the field in his wake, only gold medallist Emmanuel Wanyonyi was able to hold off Arop, beating him by one one-hundredth of a second at the line.
“I wasn’t sure if it was going to be fast or tactical today, and it ended up being both so similar tactics to last year’s world final, and I thought I timed it just right. It was so close and just a huge, huge personal best today,” Arop said. “It was a little bit bittersweet. I wanted that gold medal so bad, but I also couldn’t have asked for a better race.”
Cam and Rory’s Marathon Morning
Cam Levins and Rory Linkletter raced in one of the hallmark events of the Olympic Games: the marathon.
This is not your usual long weekend run. The course for Paris 2024 came in with the of potentially being among the toughest courses in the world.
Levins finished 36th in the race, with a season’s best time of 2:11:56, while Linkletter was 47th, clocking in with a time of 2:13:09.
“After I crossed the line I didn’t realize how much those hills have taken on me,” Levins said. “I was hoping for a lot better still, but for how I was feeling going in, I’m okay with it. The marathoning world is real good right now and I need to be at the very top of my game to stand any sort of chance.”
“It challenged you in unique ways. I felt like I ran the hills well. What I really struggled with was that last 10 km, getting the legs to spin again. I was dealing with leg fatigue and cramping – nothing crazy, but just to the point where I didn’t feel like I could attack. I had to kind of conserve and survive,” Linkletter said. “Everybody’s really well prepared and it just shows you how deep and how strong the marathon is worldwide.”
Fafard Hurt in 5000 Metre Final
Thomas Fafard completed his first Olympic Games with a 22nd place finish in the men’s 5000 metre final with a time of 13:49.69.
After qualifying 8th in his first round heat with a time of 14:09.37, Fafard showed out in the event final Saturday night, fighting through an injury after a trip during the final.
“It was a hard race. Coming in last in the Olympic final and tripping and spraining my ankle was now how I projected my race,” Fafard said. But there are a lot of positive of it and I’ll just try to let it sink in and focus on the next few races.”
Fast Times in the 4×400 Relay
Canada’s women’s 4×400 metre relay team laid down a season’s best time to claim 6th place in the event final. The team of Zoe Sherar, Savannah Sutherland, Kyra Constantine and Lauren Gale finished with a time of 3:22.01.
In an extremely fast race, every team that finished the race achieved either a season’s best, a national record or an area record. The gold medallists from the United States were just one tenth of a second behind the world record that has stood since 1988.
“I think our group’s just getting stronger year over year. We’ve shown at our national championship, it’s always super competitive, a super deep field, and that pushes us to faster times. I think this is a really good sign of momentum going forward. Our group gets stronger every year,” Sherar said.
“I think we have a pretty young team. I think that we continue to get better each time we step on the track, and each time we get more experience with each other. I know this is my first time running on the four by four, but I’m looking forward to see what we can improve when we work together,” Sutherland said.
“For a few of us, this is our fourth 400 of the week, so I think when we’re ready and we’re fresh, I think it’ll be a lot quicker. Like Savannah said, we’re a young team. We’ve got many more Olympics and world championships to come, so I’m looking forward to running with these ladies again,” Gale said.
Tomorrow at Paris 2024
Malindi Elmore was one of the first athletes nominated to the Canadian Olympic Team this spring. Tomorrow, she will be Canada’s final athletics team member to compete in Paris.
Elmore will take to the streets of Paris in the women’s marathon in the wee hours of the morning (or night, depending on where you live in Canada). If you’re still up at 2 a.m. ET (11 p.m. PT), you should settle in with a snack to watch live!
Then take a nap and watch our athletes close out Paris 2024 and look ahead to LA28 at the Closing Ceremonies at 3 p.m. ET (12 p.m. PT).
Don’t Miss Anything
Watching your athletics team take on the world is serious business.
You need one place that gives you day-by-day Canadian athlete schedules, results in real time, the full Canadian roster and bios, historical stats to help you sound more like an expert, as well as direct access to all your broadcast and streaming options.
Go to our Paris 2024 Homepage, bookmark it, comeback every day and you will be ahead of the Games.
CBC/Radio-Canada’s comprehensive coverage of Paris 2024 will feature live broadcasts from every venue and include every Canadian medal-winning moment, with 22 hours of live television coverage each day and totalling more than 3000 hours of live content available on CBC and partner networks TSN and Sportsnet, CBC Gem, CBC’s Paris 2024 website (cbc.ca/paris2024) and the CBC Paris 2024 app for Android and iOS devices.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Caroline Sharp
National Teams Communications Specialist
Athletics Canada
WhatsApp: (613) 323-5605 / Cell: (214) 601-8024
E: Caroline.Sharp@athletics.ca