It promised to be a very open final without any real favourite. Initially no one really went into the lead and as the runners came together Tecuceanu and Tual were leading side by side.
Just as in the semifinals De Arriba would have none of that. He sprinted around the group and resolutely took the lead. Tecuceanu and Tual went along with the increased pace, and so did Giles, but the other four were apparently surprised by the sudden acceleration so a gap was seen between the top four and the others.
De Arriba gave it his all and held the lead until around 600m, when Tual passed him. Meanwhile Attaoui was coming from behind and approached very quickly. He also went past De Arrba, followed by Tecuceanu.
It seemed as though Attaoui might take over, but Tual found another gear and finished with a decent gap. Attaoui crowned his first major final with a silver medal, and to the delight of the home crowd Tecuceanu held on for bronze.
But the day belonged to Gabriel Tual. After reaching an Olympic final in 2021 and a World final in 2022 he can now proudly celebrate his first major title.
Final 1 Gabriel Tual FRA 1:44.87 2 Mohamed Attaoui ESP 1:45.20 3 Catalin Tecuceanu ITA 1:45.40 4 Álvaro de Arriba ESP 1:45.64 5 Andreas Kramer SWE 1:45.70 6 Adrián Ben ESP 1:46.54 7 Elliot Giles GBR 1:47.06 8 Ole Jakob Solbu NOR 1:51.33
Semifinals
The first semi wasn't very quick, since initially nobody was ready to set a fast pace. De Arriba then raced forward after 300m and took the lead, but they still took well over 53 seconds for the first lap. Tecuceanu took over around the 600m mark, and Ostrowski tried to go with the leader, but fell back quickly. Giles then managed to edge into the top three, and so Tecuceanu, Giles and De Arriba qualified. Anselmini was closing very fast but had just mistimed his final efforts.
The second semi was quicker, with Randolph ensuring a serious pace. On lap two he dropped back seriously, and so Tual and Kramer took over. Towards the line Attaoui put in a strong effort and managed to come second. Ben went neck and neck with Kramer for the third spot into the final. Kramer eventually edged out Ben, but since this semifinal was quicker than the first one both Ben and Solbu qualified on time.
Semifinal 1 1 Catalin Tecuceanu ITA 1:46.30 Q 2 Elliot Giles GBR 1:46.50 Q 3 Álvaro de Arriba ESP 1:46.57 Q 4 Paul Anselmini FRA 1:46.62 5 Jakub Dudycha CZE 1:46.94 6 Simone Barontini ITA 1:47.10 7 Filip Ostrowski POL 1:47.15 8 Marino Bloudek CRO 1:47.16
Semifinal 2 1 Gabriel Tual FRA 1:45.03 Q 2 Mohamed Attaoui ESP 1:45.19 Q 3 Andreas Kramer SWE 1:45.33 Q 4 Adrián Ben ESP 1:45.34 q 5 Ole Jakob Solbu NOR 1:45.59 q 6 Ryan Clarke NED 1:46.00 7 Thomas Randolph GBR 1:49.18 - Francesco Pernici ITA DQ (1:45.61)
Heats
The four heats were very different. From each heat three athletes would qualify automatically for the semifinals. Four fastest losers would progress as well. Heat 1 was fairly quick, and it meant other heats had to be run at a decent pace if any of the fastest losers were to come from them. Heats two and three both saw quite a sedate pace though, and so only three athletes qualified from each.
The athletes from heat four grabbed the opportunity to run quickly, and although the pace was not incredibly fast, it was still fast enough for seven athletes to qualify from heat four.
Most favourites managed to qualify, but a few contenders didn't make it. Spain and Italy were happy with all three of their athletes qualifying. Two out of three Frenchmen made it through, but Yanis Meziane went out. The Belgians had high hopes but Crestan, De Smet and Sisk all went out. Another notable casualty was Mark English (bronze in 2022). And Poland saw both Rozmys and Borkowski failing to reach the semis.
Heat 1 1 Gabriel Tual FRA 1:45.69 Q 2 Francesco Pernici ITA 1:45.87 Q 3 Álvaro de Arriba ESP 1:46.03 Q 4 Mateusz Borkowski POL 1:46.12 5 Tobias Grønstad NOR 1:46.39 6 Tibo De Smet BEL 1:46.71 7 Balázs Vindics HUN 1:46.84 8 Salih Teksöz TUR 1:47.80
Heat 2 1 Adrián Ben ESP 1:46.39 Q 2 Elliot Giles GBR 1:46.44 Q 3 Andreas Kramer SWE 1:46.46 Q 4 Eliott Crestan BEL 1:46.48 5 Mark English IRL 1:46.73 6 Ramon Wipfli SUI 1:47.37 7 Michał Rozmys POL 1:47.46 8 Jared Micallef MLT 1:47.91
Heat 3 1 Ole Jakob Solbu NOR 1:46.16 Q 2 Simone Barontini ITA 1:46.30 Q 3 Filip Ostrowski POL 1:46.37 Q 4 Yanis Meziane FRA 1:46.39 5 Callum Dodds GBR 1:46.39 6 Niels Laros NED 1:46.62 7 Abedin Mujezinovic BIH 1:49.20 8 Dániel Huller HUN 1:49.59
Heat 4 1 Paul Anselmini FRA 1:44.73 Q 2 Jakub Dudycha CZE 1:44.89 Q 3 Catalin Tecuceanu ITA 1:44.93 Q 4 Marino Bloudek CRO 1:45.07 q 5 Mohamed Attaoui ESP 1:45.09 q 6 Ryan Clarke NED 1:45.25 q 7 Thomas Randolph GBR 1:45.58 q 8 Pieter Sisk BEL 1:45.87