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Rudisha surges to victory

2012-08-09 09:36:04

Kenya’s David Rudisha won the men’s 800 metres on Thursday in a new world record time of 1:40

Rudisha: Unbeatable

91, beating the mark set by Lord Sebastian Coe 16 years ago.

The 23-year-old led nearly from start to finish and after putting his foot down with 200 metres to go, nobody could match him.

Nijel Amos of Botswana finished second, with the 18-year-old showing at least some fight as he refused to go quietly, pushing all the way to finish five metres behind Rudisha.

A second Kenyan, Timothy Kitum, took the bronze in what was a personal best time of 1:42.53.

“Lord Coe is a very good friend of mine and I was here early in February and he took me round the stadium and I said I would come here and run to make him proud,” Rudisha, who is also the defending World Champion, said after the race.

“To come here and break the world record is something unbelievable.

“I was well-prepared this year and I had no doubt about winning. But I was waiting for perfect conditions to break the world record because I knew this year I was in the shape to run 1.40.

“But today the weather was beautiful so I decided just to go for it.”

Results:

1 David Lekuta Rudisha
2 Amos Nijel
3 Timothy Kitun
4 Duane Solomon
5 Nick Symmonds
6 Mohammed Aman
7 Abubaker Kaki
8 Andrew Osagie