Article content EDMONTON — Marco Arop’s spikes fit perfectly these days and his shorts are appropriate for the track, which is to say the world’s fastest 800-metre man looks the part. He wasn’t exactly dressed for success a decade ago during the first high school meet of his career, held at Foote Field in Edmonton. “Basketball shorts and borrowed spikes that were way too small.
That was where it all started,” said Arop, who returns to the scene of his fashion crime on Thursday afternoon to run the 800 metres in the Edmonton Athletics Invitational meet. “I had my first junior nationals here, too,” he recalled earlier this week. “That was the Olympic trials.
That was a funny race because I was so nervous with the crowd. I remember going out in 51 seconds. My 400 personal best was 50-point at the time, so I was basically running a personal best through the 400 and I still had another lap.
Struggled. And died.” His Edmonton-based coach Ron Thompson was watching that race from the southern end of the track.
“He gave me a heart attack. The very first 200 he went out in 23.6.
I said ‘Oh god, this is not good.’ Because you know what’s going to happen. He’s green in the sport.
Dead man walking.” Arop led his heat through 600 metres, then faded badly and wound up 16 th overall with a pedestrian time of 1:56.75.
He had run almost four seconds faster a month earlier. His best time now, 1:42.85, is the Canadian record.
When he won the world championship in .
