2 Canadian track stars have a big Olympic tuneup on Friday

One of the last important track and field meets before the Olympics takes place Friday in Monaco, where Canadian stars Marco Arop and Christopher Morales Williams are among the big names at this week’s Diamond League tour stop. Here’s who and what to watch:

Marco Arop in the men’s 800m at 2:23 p.m. ET

The reigning world champion is undefeated in three 800m starts this year, including a Diamond League win in China in April and a dominant victory at last month’s Canadian Olympic trials.

On Friday, Arop was slated to face his main rival, 19-year-old Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyonyi, who took the silver at last summer’s worlds in Budapest before beating Arop in the Diamond League final in Oregon a few weeks later. But Wanyonyi dropped out after suffering his first defeat since the world championships, finishing second to Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati in a photo finish at last Sunday’s Diamond League meet in Paris.

Even without Wanyonyi, Friday’s race is pretty stacked. It features Sedjati, whose world-leading time of 1:41.56 in Paris was more than a second faster than Arop’s personal best; Great Britain’s Ben Pattison, the bronze medalist at last year’s worlds; and European champion Gabriel Tual of France, who finished third on Sunday.

Christopher Morales Williams in the men’s 400m at 2:33 p.m. ET

The 19-year-old rising star makes his professional debut after a record-breaking sophomore season at the University of Georgia turned him into an overnight Olympic contender. Morales set an unofficial indoor world record before capturing the NCAA indoor and outdoor titles and breaking the Canadian record with a time of 44.05 seconds — still the fastest by anyone in the world this year. He was also named a finalist for the track and field equivalent of the Heisman Trophy before clinching his first Olympic appearance with a victory at the Canadian trials.

Morales Williams was scheduled to face 2022 world champion Michael Norman on Friday until the American was scratched. But he’ll still take on Quincy Hall, who beat Norman at last month’s U.S. Olympic trials and was the bronze medallist at last year’s worlds.

Other Canadians to watch:

* Olympics-bound pole vaulter Alysha Newman will compete against Olympic champion and two-time world title winner Katie Moon. The American’s main challenger is Australia’s Nina Kennedy, who shared the gold with Moon at last year’s world championships.

* Lucia Stafford is in the women’s 2,000m race at 2:43 p.m. ET as she prepares for the 1,500m at the Olympics.

Other events to watch:

* Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot square off in the men’s 1,500m at 3:34 p.m. ET. They were the gold and silver medallists, respectively, at the Tokyo Olympics.

* The men’s 400m hurdles at 2:04 p.m. ET features all three medallists from the Tokyo Games. Norway’s Karsten Warholm is the reigning Olympic and world champ, American Rai Benjamin took Olympic silver in 2021 and won the Diamond League title last year; and Brazil’s Alison dos Santos was the Olympic bronze medallist before capturing the world title in 2022.

* Men’s 100m and 200m world champion Noah Lyles dropped out of the 200, saying he wanted to spend an extra week training in Florida as tries to become the first man since Usain Bolt to sweep those events at the Olympics. The top dog in the race, at 3:27 p.m. ET, is now Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo. He took bronze in the 200 and silver in the 100 at last year’s worlds.

* Another exciting showdown vanished when Olympic champion Hansle Parchment of Jamaica pulled out of the men’s 110m hurdles at 2:58 p.m. ET. That clears the way for American Grant Holloway, the reigning world champ.

How to watch:

Catch the Monaco Diamond League meet live Friday from 2-4 p.m. ET on CBC Gem, the CBC Sports app and CBCSports.ca. Here’s the full schedule of events.

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