KENYA WANYONYI'S CROWN : WORLD 800M GOLD

(From L) Algeria's Djamel Sedjati, Canada's Marco Arop, Kenya's
Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Spain's Mohamed Attaoui © Jewel SAMAD / AFP

TOKYO : Kenya's Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi added the world crown to his laurels with a hard-fought victory in the men's 800 metres.

Wanyonyi timed a championship record of 1min 41.86sec for gold in Tokyo, just four-hundredths of a second ahead of Algeria's fast finishing Djamel Sdjati.

Defending champion Marco Arop of Canada had to settle for Bronze in 1:41.95 in a reshuffle of the podium places with Sedjati from last year's Paris Olympics.

The 21-year-old Wanyonyi is a master of gun-to-tape tactics and he duly raced straight into the lead,  Arop immediately on his shoulder.

The pair briefly bumped shoulders before the Kenyan moved away, clocking a rapid 49.27 sec through the opening 400 metres.

Wanyonyi failed to drop the chasing pack down the far straight, however, and coming off the bend, the packed crowd at Tokyo's National Stadium rose to their feet as the field spread ready for all-out attack.

Arop made his move alongside Wanyonyi.

And then from a distant sixth place came Sedjati, who strained every sinew to pull up with the leading pair before Wanyonyi responded with a final, decisive kick of his own to ensure victory by the closest of margins.

The World Students Society thanks AFP.