Former UTEP track star Korir advances to 800M semifinals, Koech DQ’d at World Championships

Posted: Jul 20, 2022 / 09:11 PM MDT

Updated: Jul 20, 2022 / 11:10 PM MDT

EUGENE, Ore. (KTSM) – 2021 Tokyo Olympic 800 meter gold medalist Emmanuel Korir advanced to the semifinals of the 800m at Wednesday’s Track and Field World Championships.

Korir ran in heat one and coasted for much of the race, finishing in a very slow (by professional standards) time of 1:49.05, but still managed to win his heat over the rest of the competition.

The native of Kenya and former national champion at UTEP will now race for a spot in Saturday’s final on Thursday night in Eugene. Korir is hoping to double up on his Olympic gold with World Championship gold.

Defending Olympic 800M gold medalist and UTEP grad Emmanuel Korir won his 1st round heat at the World Championships to automatically advance to Thursday's semifinals. Very slow time for Korir: 1:49.05, but he's through to tomorrow. Jonah Koech up at 6:50.
— Colin Deaver (@ColinDeaverTV) July 21, 2022

He wasn’t the only former Miner in action in the 800 meters in Eugene. Jonah Koech, who last raced at UTEP in 2019 was running in heat five for the United States. Koech finished second in the heat in 1:44.62 and it initially appeared that he would go through to Thursday’s semfinals.

However, post-race Koech was disqualified for “jostling/obstruction,” removing him from the semifinals. With Koech’s disqualification, no American competitors will race in the semifinals of the 800 meters at Worlds.

Korir will race in heat one of the semifinals on Thursday night. The race will get underway at 8 p.m. MT.