- Olympic medallists Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Marco Arop and Djamel Sedjati will renew their rivalry
- Wanyonyi has the fastest time in a year where a record 15 men have run below 1:43
- 2019 world champion Donavan Brazier is eyeing a comeback after being out for almost three years
The men’s 800m at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 will present another chapter in a young and exciting rivalry for a crop of talented athletes.
David Rudisha’s world record of 1:40.91 from the 2012 Olympic Games still stands, but there have been subtle indications that this might be the generation of athletes that will challenge it.
When the athletes take to the track at Tokyo’s National Stadium for the heats on 15 September, there will be the Olympic champion, the defending world champion and 11 other men who have dipped below 1:43 this year.
Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the Olympic champion, owns the three fastest times in the world this year, topped by his world-leading 1:41.44 in Monaco. Having won five of his last six races, he will be buoyant heading into Tokyo after retaining his Diamond League title in Zurich.
The 21-year-old Kenyan will have to usurp, among others, Marco Arop, who denied him gold in Budapest two years ago.
Arop has had a mixed season and has only beaten Wanyonyi once, at the Kingston Grand Slam Track back in May. The long-striding Canadian was third in the Diamond League Final and has a season’s best of 1:42.22, set when finishing second to Wanyonyi in London.
Olympic bronze medallist Djamel Sedjati has raced only five times this year, but his 1:42.20 clocking in Monaco makes him the third-fastest entrant.
After years of niggling injuries, Donavan Brazier – who was undefeated at 800m from June 2019 to May 2021 – now seems fit and hungry again. His performance at the US Championships all but confirmed his form as he won in 1:42.16, chopping 0.18 off the PB he ran to win the 2019 world title.
The 28-year-old is joined on the US team by teenage sensation Cooper Lutkenhaus, who made headlines with his eye-catching run at the US Trials. The 16-year-old smashed his lifetime best to finish second in a world U18 best of 1:42.27, moving him up to 18th on the senior world all-time list and earning selection for the World Championships.
The world stage will be an even bigger step up for Lutkenhaus, but his inexperience and naivety could perhaps work in his favour.
Great Britain’s Max Burgin very nearly beat Wanyonyi at the recent Diamond League Final. Last year he set a PB of 1:43.50 to qualify for the Olympic final, but he has kicked on since then and this year he has produced the four fastest times of his career, topped by a PB of 1:42.36 in London.
Botswana’s Tshepiso Masalela won back-to-back Diamond League races in Doha and Rabat at the start of the season, setting a personal best of 1:42.70 at the latter. More recently, the world and Olympic finalist finished fifth in the Diamond League Final.
Other contenders include Spanish record-holder Mohamed Attaoui, winner of the Paris Diamond League meeting, 2024 world indoor champion Bryce Hoppel, Oceanian record-holder Peter Bol of Australia, and NACAC champion Handal Roban of St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Martin Moses for World Athletics