Canada's Brown races to bronze in 100 in Diamond League Final

ZURICH — Canada's Marco Arop raced to a silver medal in the men's 800 metres at the Diamond League Final on Thursday.

It took a world-leading time for Emmanuel Korir to beat him.

The Kenyan Olympic and world champion reeled in Arop, a 23-year-old from Edmonton, down the homestretch to pass him just before the finish line with a time of one minute 43.26 seconds, a world's best this season. Arop crossed in 1:43.38.

Arop, bronze medallist at the world championships in July, took the lead with about 250 metres to go before fading over the final 50 metres to narrowly miss the Canadian record of 1:43.20.

Canada's Aaron Brown closed his season with two medals, capturing silver in the 200 metres and bronze medal in the 100 with season's best times for both.

The 30-year-old from Toronto ran 10.06 in the 100. American Trayvon Bromell crossed in 9.94 for the victory, while Yohan Blake of Jamaica was second in 10.05. Canada's Andre De Grasse, who has struggled rebounding from a bout of COVID-19 less than a month before the world championships, was eighth in 10.21.

Just 90 minutes later, Brown ran 20.02 for silver in the 200 behind American world champion Noah Lyles (19.52). De Grasse, a six-time Olympic medallist from Markham, Ont., was sixth in 20.43.

Brown and De Grasse were part of Canada's 4x100 relay team that captured gold at the world championships in Eugene, Ore.

Final winners were presented with a diamond-shaped trophy and a US$30,000 cheque, and earned an automatic berth in next summer's world championships in Budapest.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2022.