Arop finishes second in 800m at inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship
Marco Arop has finished second at World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, Hungary, adding another distinguished achievement to his prolific collection.
Arop nearly led for the entirety of the race, taking the lead at the 200m mark and not letting up until approximately the last 50 metres, where Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati delivered a patented come-from-behind sprint to win the race.
Arop was 0.57 seconds ahead of the pack with 100 metres left in the race, and despite being passed by Sedjati, crossed the line in second place.
“You always need to give your best and see how it works out—it didn’t happen today but I congratulate Djamel, he finally won his first global title,” Arop said post-race.
The newly added three-day event held in Budapest, Hungary, is a biennial end-of-season competition that brings together the very best in track and field – only world champions, Olympic champions, Diamond League winners and the year’s leading athletes are invited.
“I was racing against the best of the best,” Arop said. “Now that there is no athletes per country limit, it makes the whole competition even more difficult. It was a real honour to race against these athletes. Now I will focus on rest and recovery.”
Arop’s second place performance on Sunday is now among the many notable international achievements in the 27-year-old’s career. He won the 2023 world title in the 800m, and reached the podium in 2022 and 2025 with bronze medal finishes. Arop also won silver at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games finishing only behind Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi.
Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati had been vying for his first major international gold after claiming silver in the 800m at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Sedjati finished third, right behind Arop at Paris 2024.
In the men’s 200m Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown reached the final but did not medal, finishing fifth and seventh respectively.
The semifinal heat took place earlier in the day, and it was one to remember for De Grasse, who posted the third best time of the field of 16 sprinters.
His semifinal time of 19.87 was just 0.03 seconds off of his season-best time which he recorded at the Botswana Golden Grand Prix in April.
Brown had the seventh best time overall (20.08s), earning the final qualification spot in the second heat.
In the final, De Grasse finished 0.13 second off of the podium, with a time of 19.92 seconds, while Brown finished with a time of 20.23 seconds.
Arop highlights Saturday competition after qualifying for 800m final
Marco Arop will be among eight finalists looking to become the first ever men’s 800m champion in the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship.
Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the defending Olympic and World champion in the 800m, finished in third place, 0.16 seconds behind Arop.
Arop, the 2023 world champion in the 800m, finished sixth overall in Saturday’s race, with a time of one minute, 44.21 seconds.
Another unique feature to the Ultimate Championships is the complete absence of qualification heats. Saturday’s 800m semifinal was the first stage in the event, with 16 runners competing for eight spots. Arop, needing to finish within the top four in his heat to qualify for Sunday’s final, finished third.
Sunday’s final will include the 2025 world champion, and Paris 2024 Olympic gold medallist Emmanuel Wanyonyi, who narrowly moved through to the final despite the ninth best time overall.
Mark English of Ireland came away with the top time on Sunday, racing to 1:43.74. He is the 2026 European Champion in the 800m.
Elsewhere in Budapest, Audrey Leduc and Sade McCreath did not manage to qualify beyond the semifinal round in the women’s 100m. Leduc finished 0.18 off of the final qualifying time, racing to a time of 11.26 seconds. McCreath finished in 17th place with a time of 11.39 seconds.
High hopes were held for one of Canada’s top athletes, Ethan Katzberg competing in the men’s hammer throw on Friday. The Paris 2024 Olympic champion was one of the gold medal favourites, but Katzberg failed to land either of his first two throws within the boundaries, and was subsequently eliminated.
Also on Friday, Christopher Morales-Williams narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 400m men’s final, as he finished just 0.58 seconds behind Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards for the final spot.
Arop will not be the only Canadian competing on Sunday, as both the semi-final and final for the men’s 200m will take place. Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown will look to get past the semifinal and advance to the final taking place later that night.
