For the first time in his career, Edmonton’s Marco Arop will compete in an event other than the 800m at next week’s Canadian Track and Field Championships in Ottawa. The 26-year-old Olympic silver medallist is entered in the men’s 1,500m, where he’ll face off against some less familiar competition.
Arop has an automatic wildcard entry to the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, having won gold in the men’s 800m at the 2023 edition in Budapest. This means he doesn’t need to hit the qualifying standard or win the national title to get a spot on Team Canada—though he’s already secured the former.
Interestingly, Arop has raced the 1,500m more often this year than in any previous season. He told Canadian Running in an interview last October that he wanted to “make the event a strength” of his. So far this season, Arop has lowered his personal best by three seconds, to 3:35.38–a time that ranks him fourth among Canadian men in 2025, behind only Foster Malleck, Olympian Kieran Lumb and rising star Max Davies.
Part of the motivation behind Arop racing the longer distance more frequently was his participation in the Grand Slam Track series, which required athletes in the short distance category to compete in both the 800m and 1,500m at each of the three Slams. Arop won the Philadelphia Slam, taking home a cool $100,000 USD for the effort.
Arop is also expected to run the 800m in Ottawa, with the goal of helping his training partner and fellow 2023 Team Canada 800m member Abdullahi Hassan achieve the world championship standard of 1:44.50. Hassan competed alongside Arop in Budapest, and currently trains under Arop’s coach Chris Woods at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Miss.
The 2025 Canadian Track and Field Championships will kick off in Ottawa on Thursday, July 31, and run through Sunday, Aug. 3. To view the full list of entries for the event, see here.
Canada’s Marco Arop a role model to other athletes at World Athletics Championships
