800m at 2022 World Athletics Championships: final, schedule, times, favorites, records
The shortest of the middle distance races, the 800m final will take place this Saturday with Korir as the clear favorite.
Kenyans have dominated the 800m race for a long time now, with David Rudisha as the best runner of the distance ever. Rudisha has the world record, 1:40:91, and has six of the eight fastest times ever recorded. The other two have come from Wilson Kipketer, a Danish athlete that was also born in Kenya. Emmanuel Kipkurui Korir is the next in line, as he tries to win his first World Championship medal.
Emmanuel Korir against the rest
The Kenyan 2021 Olympic champion, Korir, placed ahead of his fellow countryman Ferguson Rotich and Pole Patryk Dobek in Tokyo. Neither of those men are in this year’s 800m final, however, although fourth in last year’s race and world number three, Australian Peter Bol, will race alongside Korir once again. Korir has not yet tasted glory at the World Championships, having not even reached the final in 2017 nor 2019.
Korir won both his heat and his semifinal, already placing ahead of Bol in the second one while achieving a season best time of 1:45:38, the second best time in the competition so far. Korir is in shape and ready to add another gold medal, with his personal best, at 1:42:05, more than a second faster than anyone else in the final. That said, he has the slowest season’s best among the eight runners. Korir will try to impose his speed and expertise, but if Bol or fellow Kenyan Kisasy show their top speed, it might be difficult for Korir to win.
Who is in the men’s 800m final?
Apart from Korir and two other Kenyans, Kisasy and Wanyonyi, only Algeria has more than one runner in the final, thanks to Moula and Sedjati. The three other runners each come from a different continent: Frenchman Tual, Canadian Arop and Australian Bol. Here’s the list:
| LANE | BIB | COUNTRY | ATHLETE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1847 | FRA | Gabriel TUAL |
| 2 | 2094 | KEN | Emmanuel Kipkurui KORIR |
| 3 | 1508 | ALG | Djamel SEDJATI |
| 4 | 2093 | KEN | Wyclife Kinyamal KISASY |
| 5 | 1527 | AUS | Peter BOL |
| 6 | 1637 | CAN | Marco AROP |
| 7 | 2103 | KEN | Emmanuel WANYONYI |
| 8 | 1507 | ALG | Slimane MOULA |
Schedule and where to watch
The 800m final takes place Saturday 23rd of July and is scheduled to start at 18:10pm local time. In less than two minutes from the starting gun we will know who the new champion is.
If you don’t want to miss the action live it will be on TV on NBC and on stream on Peacock and NBC Sports. For UK viewers, you can watch it on BBC Sport.