Sport
Rudisha confirms he is world class
World record holder David Rudisha (pictured), proved himself the worthy successor to 800 metres greats Seb Coe and Wilson Kipketer on Tuesday with a supreme, front-running performance to win gold at the world championships.
The 22-year-old Kenyan, unbeaten over the distance since failing to make the world championships final in 2009, cruised to victory ahead of his main rival Abubaker Kaki with Russian Yuriy Borzakovskiy taking the bronze.
Rudisha’s time of 1:43.91 was almost three seconds off the record he set in Italy last August, but the ease with which he blew away a field described by Coe as one of the best for years at a world championships suggests it will take a superhuman effort to beat him at next year’s London Olympics.
Gunning out of lane six, Rudisha battled Kaki stride for stride to gain the upper hand and moved his lanky frame in front of the Sudanese 21-year-old after the lane break.
Kaki perched himself on Rudisha’s shoulder, with Borzakovskiy motoring along on the outside in third, but when the Kenyan eased himself through the gears the minor medals were all that was left to play for.
“I am very happy,” said Rudisha. “Having the world title is very important to me, more important that the word record.
“The title will remain with you for the rest of your life but the record can be broken.”
Rudisha ran one minute 41.09 in Berlin on August 22 last year, shaving two hundredths of a second off Kipketer’s 1997 mark, and lowered it to one minute 41.01 a week later in Italy.
