LONDON, (Reuters) – Kenya’s David Rudisha stormed to 800 metres gold in a world record time at the London Olympics yesterday to cap four years of dominance in the two-lap event with a brilliant run.
With the 80,000 crowd in the Olympic Stadium roaring him on, the world champion scorched around the Olympic Stadium in one minute 40.91 to beat the mark of 1.41.01 he set two years ago in Italy.
“I had no doubt about winning but I was waiting for perfect conditions to break the record,” the 23-year-old told reporters. “I am happy. I’ve waited for this moment for a long time. To come here and get a world record is unbelievable.” Nijel Amos of Botswana won silver in 1.41.73 to claim his country’s first Olympic medal and bronze went to Timothy Kitum of Kenya in 1.42.53.
All but one of the eight athletes in the field ran personal bests and the time run by Britain’s Andrew Osagie, who was last to cross the line, would have been good enough for gold at the last three Games.
“Those kind of times would get a medal in any other championships, but David is on such good form,” Osagie said. “It was an honour to be in that race.”
The last runner in the field to set himself for the start, Rudisha hit the front halfway through the back straight and after that, with his smooth loping stride eating up the track, it was a straight run against the clock.
He pushed again after taking the bell in 49.28 seconds and came into the home straight 10 metres clear of teenager Amos, finding just enough in the tank to take him over the line a tenth of a second inside his own record.
Dubbed the “Pride of Africa” after winning the world junior title in 2006, Rudisha missed the Beijing Olympics through injury and was boxed in during the semi-finals at the 2009 world championships. The following year, though, he shattered Wilson Kipketer’s 13-year-old world record, only to improve it again the following week as he went unbeaten for 34 meets until the end of last season.