Edmonton's Marco Arop chases 800m world record in Budapest
Arop, an Olympic silver medallist, heads into this weekend's World Athletics Ultimate Championship targeting a sub-1:41 finish as he battles Achilles issues that lingered into this season.
Why it matters
Arop, an Edmonton native, represents Alberta on the world stage as he pursues a long-standing global athletics record.
Edmonton native Marco Arop is among the world's top 800-metre runners competing at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship this weekend in Budapest, Hungary, with Kenyan David Rudisha's 14-year-old world record of 1:40.91 in sight. Arop, along with Algeria's Djamel Sedjati and Kenya's Emmanuel Wanyonyi, has come close to the mark in recent years without breaking it.
Arop, 27, holds a personal best of 1:41.20 and a season best of 1:41.84. He said he has felt capable of running under 1:41 for some time, comparing the pursuit to his 2021-2023 stretch when he eventually broke the 1:43 barrier after two years of believing he could.
A three-time world championship medallist and Olympic silver medallist, Arop enters the meet having dealt with an Achilles injury that lingered from 2025. He said he has had to learn to back off training when feeling pain, a shift for an athlete conditioned to push through discomfort, and now feels the fittest and healthiest he has been all season, though his results have yet to reflect that.
The three-day championship carries a US$10-million prize pool, with event winners earning $150,000. Arop is part of a Canadian contingent that includes hammer thrower Ethan Katzberg, sprinter Andre De Grasse and others competing across multiple events.
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