Melissa Bishop sets Canadian record in women's 800m

Canadian Melissa Bishop set a national record in the women's 800 metres with a time of one minute 57.01 seconds, but it was only good enough for fifth place as South Africa's Caster Semenya set the pace with a world-leading and meet record time of 1:55.27.

Eganville, Ont., native bests her previous mark by 0.01 seconds

The Canadian Press · Posted: Jul 21, 2017 4:08 PM EDT | Last Updated: July 22, 2017

Melissa Bishop, seen here at the Canadian championships, broke her own national record in the women's 800 metres event. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

World silver medallist Melissa Bishop is rounding into form at just the right time, racing to a Canadian record in the 800 metres on Friday.

The 28-year-old from Eganville, Ont., ran one minute 57.01 seconds to finish fifth at the Monaco Diamond League meet, squeaking under her previous record of 1:57.02 she set in finishing fourth at last summer's Rio Olympics.

Melissa Bishop sets Canadian record in women's 800 metres

7 years ago

5:31

The Eganville, Ontario native finished 5th at the Diamond League Monaco meet, but her time of 1:57:01 was good enough to set a national record. South Africa's Caster Semenya won in a time of 1:55:27 seconds.

The fast time comes two weeks before the world championships open at London's Olympic Stadium.

"The plan was to go out hard and we went out pretty quick, and just getting good position to have a really strong last 200 and I think we did that," Bishop said, though her goal is to break the 1:57 mark. "It was so close to 1:56. I'm happy we have some weeks coming up until worlds and we'll bang it out there."

South African Caster Semenya won the women's 800 gold in 1:55.27, while Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi was second in 1:55.47, and American Ajee Wilson crossed third in 1:55.61.