Marco Arop earns spot in Diamond League Final with solid 800m run in rainy Lausanne

Marco Arop excited Canadian track fans by taking the lead late in Wednesday's 800-metre race before the reigning world champion surprised them seconds later by fading over the final 100 in a steady downpour for a fifth-place finish in Lausanne, Switzerland.

But it appears to have been by design as the Edmonton middle-distance runner has secured a lane in the Diamond League Final next month ahead of the Sept. 13-21 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

Arop entered the race 10th in the standings, two spots shy of the eighth and final spot for the men's 800 at the Final in Zurich on Aug. 28. But the four points earned from his placing at the 50th edition of Athletissima in Switzerland allowed Arop to finish with 15, one more than Gabriel Tual of Italy who was not in the nine-man field.

The final regular-season Diamond League track and field meet is Friday in Brussels, where the men's 800 will not be contested. The event will be live streamed at CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem from 2-4 p.m. ET.

Arop had set a pre-season goal to make a fifth appearance in the Final but had a late start on the circuit after devoting time to the Grand Slam Track tour, which was forced to cancel the fourth and final meet of its inaugural season earlier in the summer.

He delivered a season best of one minute 42.22 seconds at the London Diamond League meet on July 19 and two weeks later won his fourth consecutive Canadian title and fifth overall.

With about 200 metres to the finish line on Wednesday, Arop passed Kenyan rival Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the 2024 Olympic champion, and Max Burgin of Great Britain on the outside at Stade de la Pontaise.

WATCH | Canadian champion Arop clocks 1:43.91 for 5th in Switzerland:

Edmonton's Marco Arop finishes 5th in