Canada's Marco Arop glides into 800M semifinals after winning heat at worlds

Canada's Marco Arop cruised into the men's 800-metre semifinals on Tuesday at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.

Arop, the reigning bronze medallist, made his move to the front of the pack with about 200 metres remaining and never looked back, winning the last of seven heats with a time of one minute 45.05 seconds.

The 24-year-old ran over one second faster to land on the podium at 2022 worlds in Eugene, Ore.

Arop, who was born in Sudan and raised in Edmonton, made his Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 and is the defending Pan Am champion. He's now the top-ranked 800m racer in the world.

Emmanuel Korir, the reigning Olympic and world champion from Kenya, ran a season-best 1:46.78, but finished fourth in his heat and failed to qualify. The fastest qualifier was fellow Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyoni at 1:44.92.

Canada's Abdullahi Hassan, making his world championship debut, won't advance after crossing the finish line fifth in his heat at 1:46.33.

Arop was the second Canadian man to ever medal at worlds in the event after Gary Reed won silver in 2007 in Osaka, Japan.

He'll return to the track for semis on Thursday. The medal race goes Saturday.

Watch Athletics North every day during the World Athletics Championships on  CBCSports.ca  and CBC Sports YouTube Channel for a rundown of the day's top stories and events. Rob Pizzo will be joined by our track and field analysts, including Morgan Campbell, to bring you the latest storylines.

In the women's 110 hurdles, Canada's Michelle Harrison advanced to Wednesday's semifinals with a time of 12.88 seconds.

The 30-year-old Saskatoon native also reached the semifinals last year, but a personal-best clocking of 12.74 seconds wasn't enough to race for a medal.

Mariam Abdul-Rashid,