In the 800m final at the Stade de France on Saturday 10 August, Kenya’s Emmanuel WANYONYI won another Olympic gold medal for his country with a stunning performance. At just 20, WANYONYI won a tightly contested race, emerging victorious in 1:41.19, barely ahead of his rivals.
From the very start, WANYONYI revealed his intention to dominate the race, quickly taking the lead and setting a steady pace that put his rivals to the test. While the tension was visibly high, WANYONYI kept his cool and managed his energy perfectly. As the final lap approached, Canadian Marco AROP, the reigning world champion, and the Algerian bronze medallist Djamel SEDJATI, tried to catch up with WANYONYI, but he withstood the pressure with great mastery.
The final sprint was particularly intense, with all three runners neck and neck in the home stretch. It was at this point that WANYONYI found the strength to accelerate again, edging out Marco AROP by just one-hundredth of a second to cross the finish line first. This historic result, with the third-best 800m time in history, attests not only to WANYONYI’s exceptional talent but also to his potential to become an athletics legend.
His victory further marks a continuation of Kenya’s domination of the 800m, a discipline in which the country has often shone at the Olympic Games. Emmanuel WANYONYI, who had already impressed at the World Championships, did confirm his status as a prodigy and successor to the iconic figures of Kenyan middle-distance running.
His performance in Paris is sure to inspire many young athletes in Kenya and throughout Africa, showing that with hard work, determination and perfect race management, it is possible to achieve great things on the world stage. For WANYONYI, this Olympic triumph is probably just the beginning of a promising career that could see him dominate the 800m for years to come.
The crowd at the Stade de France witnessed this memorable race and enthusiastically lauded his performance, aware that they had experienced a historic moment in athletics. With this gold medal, Kenya continues to assert its supremacy on the world middle-distance scene, and WANYONYI is undoubtedly one of the names to remember from the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
