Canada’s 800m Olympic silver medallist Marco Arop is stepping up in distance to take on the inaugural Grand Slam Track (GST) season, adjusting his goals to handle the longer, less familiar 1,500m event. But his competitors, which includes the entire Olympic 1,500m podium, seem to think Arop is being a little too ambitious. “Marco coming out and saying that he wants to run a 3:30 is the cutest thing that I’ve ever seen,” 1,500m Olympic bronze medallist Josh Kerr said on the Citius Mag podcast on Thursday. “But he’s going to have use his head.”
Marco Arop caught a stray. 😭
“Marco coming out and saying that he wants to run a 3:30 is the cutest thing that I’ve ever seen.” pic.twitter.com/zJU9WwroU0
— Alex Predhome (@Predamame) January 9, 2025
Kerr’s comment addressed Arop’s goals for the inaugural Grand Slam Track season in the 1,500m, which the Canadian revealed in a Citius Mag podcast episode on Tuesday. “I might sound crazy to say this, but I think I can break 3:30 at some point,” Arop admitted. He’ll be competing at four Slams against Kerr and Americans Yared Nuguse and Cole Hocker, running both the 800m and 1,500m events at each competition.
“It’s so cute,” Kerr said. “He’s so nice about it. But he’s going to have to use his brain. It’s not, ‘let’s switch the brain off and run two laps as fast as possible’–there’s so much more to a 1,500m.”
“If you can run 3:30, that’s fine–most people in the world can run 3:30,” Kerr continued. “It’s, can you know what’s going on, can u get the splits right, can you make your move at the right time, do you go out fast or go out slower. I think that’s the part he’s not going to get right early, but he’ll learn over the Grand Slam meets.”
Marco Arop becomes first Canadian to sign with Grand Slam Track League
Arop holds the North American 800m and 1,000m records, and ran 1:41.20 in the Paris Olympic 800m final with a negative split–which is very rare in such a short distance. The 26-year-old is often forced to hang back early in 800m races due to his tall stature and long stride to avoid tripping. Of all 800m runners, he’s likely the most experienced when it comes to tactics.
While Kerr says “most people” can dip under 3:30, the World Athletics all-time list reveals that only 48 people in history have actually broken that barrier. If successful, Arop would become the first Canadian athlete to join that collection of names–Kevin Sullivan’s nearly 25-year-old 1,500m Canadian record is 3:31.71.
