Emmanuel Wanyonyi wins silver in 800m, Arop strikes gold

Kenya has lost the men’s world 800meters title.

This is after teenager Emmanuel Wanyonyi squandered his lead over Canadian Marco Arop with 300m to go to settle for silver in one minute and 44.53 seconds.

Arop, who had claimed bronze last year during the world championships in Oregon, United States of America, seemed to have changed his tactics from front-running to attack from behind.

It paid dividends for the 24-year-old Sudan-born who clocked 1:44.24 to edge out Wanyonyi, the world under-20 800m champion, who also improved from a fourth place last year.    

Commonwealth Games 800m bronze medallist Ben Pattison from Great Britain settled for bronze in 1:44.83.

Defending champion Emmanuel Korir from Kenya had to relinquish his title after he fell in the preliminary round.  

Meanwhile, Kenya’s 4x400m relay team squandered their second position to finish seventh in the men’s 4x400m relay to miss out on the final set for Sunday.

Kenya’s anchor Commonwealth Games 800m champion Wycliffe Kinyamal, who ran strongly in second position behind Jamaica’s D'Andre Anderson, slowed down at the last bend to home straight.

Then Italy’s Alessandro Sibilio pushed Kinyamal from the inner lane as he considerably slowed to cross the line limping in 3:01.41.

Jamaica won the second semi-final heat in 2:59.82 followed by France and Italy in 3:00.05 and 3:00.14 respectively as they automatically sailed through to the final.

The United States of America won the first semi-final heat in 2:58.47 as India clocked an Asian Record time of 2:59.05 for second.