Several renowned athletes failed to progress past the heats. Olympic and defending champion, Emmanuel Korir, Olympic silver medalist and 2019 bronze medalist Ferguson Rotich, 2019 bronze medalist Amel Tuka, 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Clayton Murphy and 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medalist Peter Bol all failed to qualify for the semifinals. Returning silver medalist Djamel Sedjati was lucky to be in the slow second semi. His second place automatic qualifier of 1:44.49 was the slowest time to make the final. Ben Pattison was the slowest qualifier on time with 1:44.23. Emmanuel Wanyonyi was the fastest qualifier with 1:43.83.
The final started with Pattison the first to the break line, but Wanyonyi pushed the back stretch to take the lead before the next turn, then used his position to keep the pace slow taking the bell at 52.68. In the 2022 Olympic final Arop hit the bell in 52.05 and relinquished the lead on the home stretch. This year he was dead last after 400m. Halfway through the penultimate turn, Arop moved out to get some running room. Shifting gears as he hit the backstretch, Arop ran past the field, taking the lead at the beginning of the final turn and he kept going opening up a 2 metre lead through the turn. Coming off the turn, the others lined up three abreast behind Wanyonyi to sprint for home, but Arop was way out front and pulling away. Wanyonyi made a late run, pulling back a metre from Arop's lead, but still finished 2 metres back. Two more metres back, Pattison hit the line barely ahead of Adrián Ben and Slimane Moula for bronze. Sedjati was later disqualified for a lane violation.
Records
Before the competition records were as follows:[2]
