At the Internationales Abendsportfest in Pfungstadt, Germany on Wednesday, Justin O’Toole, 23, ran 1:44.42 to win the men’s 800m event, which is just inside the world qualifying standard of 1:44.50. This means Canada could conceivably send all four of its qualifying athletes to the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo next month, under a special rule that allows countries to send one more than the usual three.
Justin O’Toole finally got the 800m world championship standard.
That means all 4 Canadians might be heading to Tokyo: Marco Arop (defending world champion), Abdullahi Hassan, Matti Erickson & now Justin O’Toole. https://t.co/GcuHEmwyaw
— Spot Athlete (@SpotAthlete) August 20, 2025
Canada’s Marco Arop has an automatic Wild Card entry, as the defending world 800m champion from 2023. Under World Athletics’ Qualification System and Entry Standards for World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25, having a Wild Card entry allows a nation to enter a fourth athlete in that event. (It also meant Arop did not have to make the qualifying standard or win his national championship, but he did both.)
With three other Canadian athletes having achieved the world standard (Arop’s training partner Abdullahi Hassan, Kootenay, B.C.’s Matti Erickson and now O’Toole), it’s possible these four Canadian men could all be named to Team Canada for Tokyo.
O’Toole, who was born in Montreal and attended Columbia College (which is part of Columbia University), finished second behind Arop at the Canadian Track and Field Championships in Ottawa earlier this month, closing hard in the final stretch and pushing Arop to the line.
Hassan hit the standard at NACAC in the Bahamas on the weekend, running 1:44.25, while Erickson squeaked under the standard with 1:44.49 at the Sound Running Sunset Tour in Los Angeles on July 14.
Arop also raced Wednesday, at Lausanne Diamond League, where he finished fifth, in 1:43.91. The meet was plagued by downpours throughout the day; see below for more.
The qualification period for the world championships closes on Aug. 24.
Keeley Hodgkinson gets meeting record at Lausanne Diamond League
Also at Lausanne Diamond League on Wednesday, British 800m runner Keely Hodgkinson solidified her comeback with a dominant win and meeting record, crossing the line in 1:55.69, just a few days after setting a commanding world lead of 1:54.74 at Silesia Diamond League. At Lausanne on Wednesday, she finished almost two seconds ahead of Switzerland’s Audrey Werro in second place (1:57.34) and Georgia Hunter Bell, also of the U.K., in third (1:57.55).
Jamaica’s Oblique Seville went sub-10 to upset Olympic gold medallist Noah Lyles, in the pouring rain; Oblique won the meet with 9.87, while Lyles ran 10.02. Jamaica’s Ackeem Blake was third, also in 10.02.
For results from the Internationales Abendsportfest, click here. For results from the Lausanne Diamond League, click here.
