A world record crumbles on Rudisha’s celestial night

For,King of Sprints Usain Bolt was announcing his living-legend status to the world,even as Rudisha stuck to his own brief—and became a running legend.

David,son of Daniel,a1968 relay bronze winner,loped ahead of the field with the cleanest pair of heels in one of 800m’s rarest dashes,dictating the yawning gap between the second and the first. For,a sprint it was,the lead-horse towing away his peers to phenomenal timings,in which Andrew Osagie who finished 8th could have won gold in Beijing. Amos,the little silver medallist who lay exhausted and was stretchered off,couldn’t have yielded better dividends than the timing that came with attempting to tail 800’s presiding royalty.

49.28 seconds for the first 400m,you waited—and didn’t,simultaneously—for the easing fade-off to occur,for Rudisha to grab some breath,to check for interlopers who might launch their final bursts. The finishing kicks started and ended some place behind many lengths away,for Rudisha was unstoppable. Cars don’t hit fifth gear straight,aeroplanes too need a runway to gain acceleration,but this one man turned his event into the longest single-breath sprint ever.

Great Britain is Seb Coe country. The London Olympics organising committee Chairman was an 800 man before his flirtations with the Tories and the life peerage. For a minute and 40-odd seconds though,he went back to his core love,he sat and admired 800’s greatest contemporary athlete. Great Britain is also Steve Ovett and Steve Cram country. Along with Coe,they were the Beatles of British mid-distance running. And all three raved plenty watching the double-lap race. This one lacked the intrigue and rivalries,for Rudisha only raced his own previous world record.

Rudisha was trained by Brother Colm,an Irish missionary geography teacher who became a coach,the same man who took Kenya’s last massive runner Wilson Kipketer to grand heights in the 800. A runner from the famous Masai tribe,Rudisha had pedigree thanks to his dad,but still worked diligently before he registered his first world record in 2010. Kipketer had gone to run for Denmark. But in Rudisha,Kenya had a man who wanted to run for his own country,and could lord over the night on which Bolt and Blake had just scorched the 200 track.

The biggest compliment came from Bolt whose jaw dropped at Rudisha’s timings over 500 and 600m. It moved the superstar into conceding that he might want to race the 800 star: “I think if I train….if,then I can take Rudisha over 400m. Anything up (above 400m) I don’t think I can.”