World Record For Rudisha In Berlin

Kenyan eclipses Kipketer’s longstanding 800-meter mark.

Written by: David Monti
(c) 2010 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.

Kenya’s David Rudisha broke one of athletics’ most vaunted world records today in Berlin, clocking 1:41.09 for 800 meters.  Rudisha’s performance bettered by 2/100ths of a second Denmark’s Wilson Kipketer’s previous standard of 1:41.11 set in Köln in 1997.

Rudisha, 21, already had the world’s fastest time this year going into today’s ISTAF Meeting, part of the IAAF World Athletics Challenge series: 1:41.51 set in Heusden on 10 July.  That mark was also the African record.  He is now undefeated in 13 800-meter races this year, including the African Championships where he ran 1:42.84 at high altitude in Nairobi to get the gold medal.

Today in Berlin pacemaker Sammy Tangui of Kenya took Rudisha through 400m in a blistering 48.65, and Rudisha carried the momentum through 600m alone in 1:14.54.  He covered the final 200m in 26.55 seconds to get the record.

Rudisha, who represents adidas, now owns two of the top-4 times in history (four out of the top-10).  He is represented by Australian manager James Templeton.

Behind Rudisha, Boaz Lalang, the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships silver medalist, finished second in 1:44.34.  Abraham Kiplagat was third in 1:44.49.