“Wow! I’m very happy. This is the moment I have been waiting for, for a very long time. To come here and break the world record is something unbelievable,” an ecstatic Rudisha told BBC Sport after the race.
“Lord Coe is a very good friend of mine,” the softly-spoken Rudisha said after the race. “In February he took me round this stadium. That was good for me. I wanted to come here and make him proud.”
The 23-year old Kenyan set such a blistering pace during his competitor-blitzing performance that as the rest of the field raced to keep up only Abukaker Kaki, who finished seventh, failed to record a personal best.
Even Team GB’s Andrew Osagie recorded a new personal best of 1:43:77, but yet, much to the 24-year-old’s disappointment, he finished last in the 800m final. As well as being a PB, it was a new world record for an eighth-placed runner in an Olympic 800m final and was a time that would have won him gold at the last three Olympics.
Rudisha though, is convinced that he go even faster, laying down the gauntlet for other 800m runners to try to keep up.
“After running two rounds before the final I got a little bit tired. I told the physio yesterday that I was feeling sore after the semis, so if I can get fresh then I can still improve on that.”
Photo: Getty.
