A world record is, by its nature, extraordinary. But there are some performances which go beyond that limit, inspiring awe and even reverence. David Lekuta Rudisha produced such a performance in the London 2012 stadium on Thursday night, winning the Olympic 800 metres gold in a world record time of 1.40.91sec.
And the Kenyan led every step of the way.
Regular readers here will know that this column’s greatest admiration is reserved for those athletes who always try to compete to their limits, in a desire to exploit their own talent to its utmost, and in doing so push back the barriers of their (and our) sport.
When an athlete announces the possibility of a world record, most of the time it is either in response to media urging, or in an effort to convince themselves of their own questionable worth. A superb athlete, and a quietly spoken, reflective man like Rudisha has no need of such doublespeak.
So when he talked before the Games of his desire to win in record time, having introduced that possibility with two sub-1.42sec times on the circuit, and a 1.42.12sec win in the Kenyan Trials, at an altitude of over 1500 metres, then we sat up and paid as much attention as we did when the 800 final began on Thursday.
Rudisha was as good as his word.
At 23, he emulated another ‘giant’ of the track, Alberto Juantorena of Cuba, who was the last man to set an 800 metres world record (1.43.50) in winning the Olympic title. But the historical figure that Rudisha most memorably recalls, both in the manner of his victory and in its world record result is Filbert Bayi of neighbouring Tanzania, who set a 1500 metres world record of 3.32.2 (3.32.16) in winning the 1974 Commonwealth title in Christchurch, New Zealand. Like Rudisha, Bayi led every step of the way.
I will not weary you with a lengthy exposition of my disdain for those talented athletes who are content to sit on their opponents’ efforts, and kick to victory in the final metres. Nor need I bemoan the tedious procession of paced races, which have blighted the circuit for the past 30 years, and contributed to the diminishing interest in athletics. You will have read it here before. Suffice to repeat that those deserving of our greatest admiration should always be people like Bayi and Rudisha.
Even Usain Bolt watched admiringly, before he went out to successfully defend his 200 metres title. Doubtless recalling the 150 metres match, made post-Atlanta 1996, between 100 and 200 metres champions, Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson, Bolt was asked whether he might confront Rudisha at an intermediate distance. Told that Rudisha had gone through 500 and 600 metres in just over 61sec and just over 1.14sec respectively, Bolt mused, “I’ve done 60sec for 500 metres. I think if I trained for it, I could beat him over 400 metres, but anything more, forget it”.
Rudisha himself said, “Nobody has ever broken the world record in the 800 metres without a pace-setter. I knew it was always going to be difficult, I knew I could always run 1.41(!), but breaking the world record was a different story. But I was very determined, and I knew I am in good shape this year, and it’s what I’ve been working for with my coach all year. We were just looking for perfect conditions and a good place to break the world record.
“When we started (heats) on Monday, I knew the track was fast, and I was just praying we would get the perfect weather on Thursday night, for a fast race. First I was looking for the stadium (Olympic) record, which was 1.42.58, set in 1996. To break the world record here is something special, and I couldn’t believe it myself”.
Rudisha was injured, and missed going to Beijing four years ago, and for reasons best known to himself did not get through the World Champs semi-finals in 2009. Since then, he has virtually owned the two-lapper.
Rudisha did not have a pacemaker, but everyone else in the race did; and they had the best in the world. It is testament to Rudisha that the enormous talents of 18 year old Nijel Amos of Botswana, the recent world junior champion, and Rudisha’s 17 year old compatriot Timothy Kitum (world junior silver medallist) were dragged to 1.41.73sec and 1.42.53 respectively); the rest of the field accordingly ran the fastest ever for their position, from first to eighth place.
Rudisha was introduced to running by his father Daniel, a member of the Kenyan silver medal winning 4×400 metres relay squad in 1968. “He is the one who made me to come this far, he’s a big inspiration in my career. I wanted to do like him. One time, I was reading a magazine from the 1960s with an interview from him. He wanted to break the world record in 400 metres, and he didn’t do it. For his son to come and do it now is a great honour”.
We will leave the last words to Sebastian Coe, whose own superb performance in fronting these massively successful Games have brought so much pride to the nation, and pleasure to the rest of the world. Incidentally, Coe’s one-time world record of 1.41.73 was emulated by silver medallist, 18 year old Nijel Amos on Thursday.
‘That was simply an unbelievable performance,’ said Coe, of Rudisha’s record. ‘David Rudisha showed supreme physical and mental confidence to run like that in an Olympic final.Instead of doing just enough to win the race, he wanted to do something extraordinary, and go for the world record as well. Rudisha’s run will go down in history as one of the greatest Olympic victories. I feel privileged to have witnessed it in London’.
What a shame that mass hysteria over Usain Bolt’s 200m victory obscured a truly awesome world record run by Rudisha. The latter’s courage and confidence to lead every step of the way in an Olympic final was very special and made the men’s 800 metres an unforgettable race.
Perhaps even more impressive than his performance is the noble bearing and quiet dignity of the Kenyan – a descendant of Masai warriors, apparently. Whilst Bolt grabbed all the attention by shamelessly strutting his stuff before and after winning, Rudisha put his simple plan into operation and got on with it, leading seven other men to great finishing times behind him. As Lord Coe said, it was a privilege to witness what he did over two laps of the stadium track on Thursday 9th August 2012 in Stratford, East London.
I do not mean to criticise or demean Bolt’s performance in winning his fourth individual Olympic gold medal. It was a great feat to win under pressure from his team-mate Johan Blake like that. Amazingly, the Jamaican superstar is a very likeable man in spite of his strutting arrogance; but only true observers of our sport will know that the real hero that night was not Usain Bolt but David Rudisha. Bolt knew this too, and stopped to pay tribute to the Kenyan standing on the medal rostrum as he was being interviewed trackside by the BBC’s Phil Jones.
For me and I suspect many others, Rudisha’s front running 1:40.91 for 800 metres was THE performance of the 2012 Olympic Games.
Pat
Nothing to add but ‘hear, hear’.
Pat – the saga of Daniel Rudisha is worth a piece in itself. As I recall the story – possibly somewhat embellished – this was a young Masai lad, who, straight from the bush, in just his fourth race won silver at 440 in the Kingston Commonwealth Games. His Kenyan colleagues mocked him and stole his medal and later he served a jail term for indulging in the Masai tribal sport of cattle rustling. There may be a fair bit of myth and fantasy in this story, but surely worth some serious research.
Re front-running, greatest of all was Kuts, but he could only do it by being basically better than the others – as is also the case with David Rudisha and Bayi. Among evenly matched athletes, going from the gun is suicide. There is a basic contradiction in your position: you criticise ‘sitters’, but you’re against pacemakers. You can’t have it both ways. What made both 10ks ‘true-run’ races is that the pace was taken up early on – in the women’s by the Japanese, in the men’s by the Eritreans. In my view, a compromise solution could be to allow pacemakers in championship events, but only in the early laps. Effectively, you would be turning them into keirins.
Both 1500 winners were unfairly criticised by the BBC commentators. They did exactly what was required in the circumstances – not just sitting, but getting themselves into the right position, then taking the initiative when the time came. It’s not enough to have a strong kick; you have to be prepared to work to get yourself into a position to use it – even lead if you have to. I wish someone would explain that to Lisa Dobriskie. . .
Cheers,
Tim J
Tim, I don’t think the BBC commentators criticised the 1500m winners for their tactics…
Great article. I loved watching this race. As you mention, this type of running also “drags” other runners to great performances and pushes the edge of the envelope out further in the event. I hope this sets a standard of performing that other runners will emmulate. As a viewer, it certainly is a lot more exciting to watch this kind of gutsy running than a wait and kick race.
Great article Pat, couldn’t agree more. I’m unsure why so many athletes were happy to jog around at these games and hand easy victories to their speedier competitors. You might not win running from the front, but at least you’ll make the competition earn it by running the full race distance at at least something approaching their best performance.
Nothing to add to Pat’s excellent comments; total agreement over that fabulous win of Filbert Bayi’s – and, of course of Daniel Rudisha’s Olympic 800m. The only problem, as an athlete, is of course if you know you have a very strong finish, but not necessarily the total aerobic stamina to lead all the way – your tactic is to hope you can hang on to the final sprint zone. Does anyone remember Lachie Stewrat’s great Edinburgh 1970 Commonwealth Games win? When he was running 4th in a group consisting of the then WR holder, the Olympic Champion and the European champion – and he was still there with about 200 metres to go. BUT, Lachie had originally started his running career as a sprinter – so, in later years, if ever he was in contact with half-a-lap to go – he would win! He had the fast-twitch fibres in his legs! And he did win, to the great appreciation of the Meadowbank crowd. How unfortunate are those runners who have world-record-class aerobic stamina for 10,000m – like David Bedford, Ron Clark, Paula Radford et al, but simply don’t have that sheer finishing sprint, and are picked off, right at the end “after doing all the work”! Anyway, a fabulous run by Daniel Rudisha. Yours in Sport, C.
Great information. Pat I hope you keep writing more blogs like this one. Nice work Pat.