Emmanuel Wanyonyi during his heat (C) Kelly Ayodi / Olympics KE
The men's 800 metres semifinals at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games served bittersweet returns for Kenya late on Friday morning at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Paris, as Emmanuel Wanyonyi won his heat race to qualify for Saturday's final while his compatriot Wycliffe Kinyamal fell short after finishing third in his semifinal.
Kinyamal, who was the first to compete, had his fate hanging in the balance after he clocked 1:45.29 to finish third in the second semifinal behind the Sudan-born Canadaian Marco Arop and the Frenchman Gabriel Tual.
Arop, finishing strongly, won that race with a time of 1:45.05. Tual clocked 1:45.16 to finish second and clinch the remaining automatic qualifying slot from the race.
The 800 metres semifinals featured three races and in order to make the final, athletes had to finish in the top two positions in their semifinal races or register the two fastest times among the athletes who will ranked outside the two.
Going into the third semifinal, Kinyamal, who at the time had the fastest time among athletes who had ranked outside the top two in Semifinal One and Semifinal Two, had technically secured his place in the final and his hope hinged on Semifinal Three not having at least four athletes running faster than 1:45.29, the time Kinyamal clocked to finished third in Semifinal Two.
However, it was not to be. The third semifinal turned out to be the fastest despite Wanyonyi's best effort to slow it down by taking the lead and controlling the pace from the onset.
Wanyonyi's discrete plan to help his compatriot though did not bear fruits as the athletes behind him injected pace that saw the final completed in just 50.92 seconds.
From there, Wanyonyi was put under pressure to run faster and with two hundred metres to go, with every other runner increasing their pace, Wanyonyi bolted as well, sprinting away from the chasing group to win the race with a time of 1:43.32.
It was not the scenes that Kinyamal was hoping for as the top seven athlete in that race run sub 1:45 times.
Bryce Hoppel finished second with a time of 1:43.41 as Max Burgin of Great Britain and Mohamed Attaoui of Spain clocked 1:43.50 and 1.43.69 to finish third and fourth respectively and, hence, dethrone Kinyamal from the list of runners with the fastest times.
The 800 metres final will take place on Saturday at 8:05 pm EAT and Wanyonyi will be determined to ensure Kenya wins a fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal in the event.
