Competing at his first Olympic Games, Julius Mutekanga qualified for the London Games via qualification standards because his fastest time of 1 minute, 46.30 seconds, recorded at the 2011 Ninove Memorial Geert Rasschaert, met the "B" qualifying standard for the men's 800 metres. In an interview with "New York Press" before the Games he said he promised to ensure that he would make the best of his participation: "When you’re running, you’re looking at improving your personal best time, so it doesn’t matter whether you win or not. As long as you’re running faster and faster, that’s the ultimate goal." Mutekanga took part in the first round's seventh heat on 6 August, finishing fifth out of eight athletes, with a time of 1 minute, 48.41 seconds. Overall he finished 35th out of 52 athletes, and was 2.06 seconds behind the slowest competitor in his heat who advanced to the semi-final and, therefore, that was the end of his competition.