For Marco Arop, making Olympic 800m final is No. 1 before medals and winning, coach says
Doug Harrison | CBC Sports | Posted: September 22, 2023 3:08 PM | Last Updated: September 23, 2023
Chris Woods outlines goals after world champion placed 14th at 2021 Games in Tokyo
Marco Arop's spectacular season featuring a World Athletics Championships gold medal, Canadian title, two personal-best times and a national record over 800 metres has lined up the next challenge for his coach entering 2024.
Chris Woods will be focused on what it will take to get Arop to Paris next July and what is required to be successful at his second Summer Olympics.
"If Marco makes the final in Paris, that's a success," Woods told CBC Sports before the recent Diamond League Final in Eugene, Ore., where the Edmonton middle-distance runner finished second. He also lowered his PB for the second time in two weeks to one minute 42.85 seconds, beating Brandon McBride's Canadian mark of 1:43.20 from 2018.
"He's a world champion but not yet an Olympic finalist so that's the goal, and then we can focus on medals and winning."
During worlds, Arop said he wouldn't have achieved all he has this season without a valuable lesson learned from his Olympic debut two years ago in Tokyo. He didn't elaborate at the time but shared his thoughts with CBC Sports recently.
WATCH | Arop's Canadian record run at Diamond League Final:
Arop recalled not feeling well during warmup before the Olympic semifinals and his stomach "felt heavy" after he ate a banana about three hours earlier, but didn't share this information with Woods or members of his support staff.
"I started warmup earlier than usual and physically, I wasn't feeling the best going into the race," he recalled. "I had a great heat [the previous day winning in 1:45.26] and thought if I approached [the semifinal] the same way and everything felt the same, I would be in the final, so I was fairly confident."
Arop admitted not having the confidence to change his racing style minutes before the race.
"I had conflicting thoughts at the start line, even though [my coaches and me] had agreed to get to the front and lead the race," he remembered, realizing using too much energy early the way he felt would be a mistake."
Arop established a two-metre advantage early on and clocked a 50.94-second first lap with Peter Bol breathing down his neck. At one point, Bol came up on the Canadian from the outside and Arop panicked before surging.
He managed to hold off the Australian after the latter made a move around the 500-metre mark but weakened once he reached the straightaway with about 80m to the finish.
WATCH | Arop's gold-medal run part of big day for Canada at worlds:
"The legs just weren't there today," Arop said after crossing the line seventh in 1:44.90, 16-100ths of a second behind Kenya's Emmanuel Korir, the final qualifier for the final. He placed 14th overall in a field of 24.
"I tried to fight it, but when I saw the last three guys pass, my body just shut down on me. There was nothing left."
Two years later, Arop said it was an instant lesson learned when the race ended.
"No matter how I'm feeling," he began, "I have to assess the situation and choose what race plan is best. The way I felt [before the Olympic semifinals] and thinking I had to force that race strategy [of leading start to finish] was the worst combination.
"The right approach would have been to feel the race out and not get out too aggressively, wherever that took me. If I was in the middle or back, stay patient and have confidence in my finish that I could [secure] a qualifying spot for the final."
Woods, who has coached Arop since becoming head track and field coach at Mississippi State University in 2019, said the six-foot-four runner didn't tell him about how he felt at the start of the Olympic semifinal until the next day.
"Not to say the outcome would have been different, but the race plan certainly would have changed," the coach said. "It's a lesson we learned."
WATCH | Arop's pursuit of greatness:
After getting through the Diamond League Final healthy, the next step for Arop to carry the momentum of a successful campaign into next year is to have a strong off-season and build a good base of training.
"Next year is gonna be a bigger year, in terms of the Olympics," he told The Canadian Press recently. "The level of competition will still be the same, so nothing will change in that sense.
"But the fact that I'm in the best shape of my life now and going into, possibly, the most important season in my career, I think the momentum has been great."
Woods noted in an interview with CBC Sports the last four or five years of race experience and the confidence Arop has gained has led to him finding ways to win races, whether it's outkicking people in the last 100m or taking a race out fast and holding people off.
"Marco has an incredibly high ceiling," Woods said from MSU. "We haven't done a lot of speed work the past couple of years. He has the potential, historically, to be one of the greatest two-lap athletes."
Earning multiple championships is the next goal, including gold in Paris.
"I think a perfect season would be winning every race, breaking every record," Arop told the CP. "That's always gonna be the goal at the top of my list."