Canada's Marco Arop places 3rd in final 800M race before national championships

Marco Arop took a strong step toward his goal of upgrading on the bronze medal he won at the 2022 world championships on Friday.

The 24-year-old Edmonton native placed third in the 800-metre race at the Diamond League meet in Monaco, leaving himself in a solid position ahead of the Canadian championships, which begin Thursday in Langley, B.C.

First-place finishers at nationals who have attained the performance standard of their respective event will be automatically selected to Team Canada for the 2023 world championships in Budapest in August.

But as the pack turned into the final 100-metre stretch, Arop appeared to tire and faded to third place with a time of 1:43.51 — nearly half a second off of his personal best.

Kenya's Wyclife Kinyamal won the race with a world-leading time of 1:43.22, while Algeria's Slimane Moula was second at 1:43.40.

WATCH | Arop places 3rd:

Earlier, Kenya's Faith Kipyegon obliterated her third world record of the season — this time in the mile, where she stopped the clock in four minutes 7.64 seconds.

The time was nearly five full seconds faster than the previous mark set by Dutch runner Sifan Hassan on the same track in 2019.

Kipyegon, who also set world marks in the 1,500 and 5,000, finished nearly seven seconds clear of second-place finisher Ciara Mageean of Ireland.

Kipyegon is the two-time Olympic and world 1,500 champion.

Norway's Karsten Warholm also set a record on Friday, notching a Diamond League mark of 46.51 seconds in the men's 400 hurdles.

"Seeing that things are still working and I can go faster and faster every time, that means a lot," said Warholm, who improves his world-leading season best by 0.01 seconds. "This is nice timing as the world championships are just around