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Athlétisme - Mondiaux Budapest 2023

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Une course très ouverte

Cette finale du 800m était sans doute la plus ouverte de ces mondiaux sur le papier. Les huit finalistes pouvaient prétendre au podium et tout le monde le savait.

Du coup le premier tour sera assez lent car personne n'a voulu se découvrir. Il faudra attendre le passage aux 500m pour voir le grand Marco Arop allumer la mêche et faire exploser le groupe.

Le Canadien ne sera plus jamais revu et il fête à 24 ans son premier titre planétaire. Troisième à Eugene en 2022, après avoir été repris dans la dernière ligne droite, Marco Arop avait retenu la leçon...

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Le podium

🥇 Marco Arop 🇨🇦 1:44.24

🥈 Emmanuel Wanyonyi 🇰🇪 1:44.53

🥉 Ben Pattison 🇬🇧 1:44.83

Le classement complet ICI

 

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La réaction du vainqueur

"This means everything to me. I'm so glad to finally be able to do this on the world stage. It's been a long time coming but it feels like a blessing. After bronze in Eugene I just concentrated on making progress, step by step.

Each year trying to become better than I was the year before. Now it's going to be hard to beat a gold medal - I'll just have to repeat it, I guess. I'm going to work twice as hard now to make sure I stay on top. I don't want to be known as the guy who can only run one way.

I tried to be patient tonight and put myself in a position where I could attack. I knew it was going to be a tactical race. I was up late last night figuring different ways to win. One scenario was to kick from behind in the way I did.

I guess it was worth staying up late. To do it in the world final, it doesn't get better than that.

There are so many people behind me I need to thank I would be here for hours if I thanked them all. I'm so honoured to run for Canada and represent my nation. I'm just glad I could finally bring home the gold."

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