Canada's Marco Arop wins a men's 800 meters semifinal at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

TOKYO — Canada's Marco Arop left nothing to chance as he raced into the men's 800-metre final at the world athletics championships.

Arop won his semifinal in a photo finish Thursday, overcoming wet conditions at Japan National Stadium.

The 26-year-old from Edmonton, who entered the world championships ranked second in the world, moved to the front of the pack and controlled the race early before holding off Algeria's Djamel Sedjati. Both runners finished with a time of one minute 45.09 seconds to book a spot in Saturday's final.

"The plan was to come out here and control the race, try to be dominant, and I think I did just that," Arop said. "I held the rail position for most of the race. Then I felt a couple of challenges and responded, so I did what I had to do to get to the final and now we rest, recover, and get ready for Saturday."

Arop, the defending world champion and 2024 Olympic silver medallist, emerged from a slow semifinal — his time was 16th-best overall, behind nine runners who failed to qualify — but his performance Thursday should build confidence after he finished third in his heat Tuesday and narrowly qualified for the semifinals.

Meanwhile, Canada's sprinting hopes at the world athletics championships lie in the competition-ending 4x100-metre relay after three runners failed to advance from the 200-metre semifinals on Thursday.

Andre De Grasse, the 2021 Olympic champion in the distance, Jerome Blake and Aaron Brown were short of the mark in a blistering set of semifinals that saw all qualifiers for the final run under the 20-second mark.

The 30-year-old De Grasse, from Markham, Ont., was the top Canadian in a season-best time of 20.13. He finished sixth in a semifinal led by American Noah Lyles's run of 19.51, the fastest time in the world this season.

De Grasse said he's just finding his legs after a hamstring injury kept him out of much of the season, including the Canadian championships in August.

"I ran 20.1 and a seasons best, and that's kind of where I want to be in the middle of the season," De Grasse said. "Now I'm starting to find my legs, but, season's over now."

Blake, from Kelowna, B.C., was fifth in his heat in 20.41 and Toronto's brown was eighth in his race at 20.59.

The three sprinters will now concentrate on the relay. The Canadian team, which also includes Toronto's Brendon Rodney, is the reigning Olympic champion and won a world title in 2021 in Eugene, Ore.

The relay heats are set for Saturday night, while the final concludes the championships on Sunday.

"Just try to gather with my thoughts and get together with the team, and try to bring home a medal," De Grasse said.

Ottawa's Maëliss Trapeau qualified for Friday's semifinals in the women's 800-metres. Trapeau finished third in her heat in 2:38 in her first career world championship race. The national champion, who switched her allegiance from France to Canada this year, became the 11th Canadian woman to break the two-minute barrier at a meet in Switzerland last month.

Trapeau said her race was "a little bit crazy."

"At the 200 (mark) someone fell," she said. "It took me like five seconds to focus again."

The 25-year-old said she "pushed through the pain" over the last 200 metres to ensure a top-three finish in her heat.

Toronto's Jazz Shulka, a 2024 Olympian who finished second to Trapeau at this year's national championships, finished sixth in her heat and did not advance.

In other Canadian results, Audrey Leduc of Gatineau, Que., finished fifth in her women's 200 semifinal in 22.9 seconds and did not advance to the final. Canada also won't have a runner in the women's 5,000 final after Toronto's Gabriela DeBues-Stafford (15:04.3) and Vancouver's Regan Yee (15:12.3) finished 12th and 14th respectively in their heats.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2025.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2025