Kenyan David Rudisha was feted like a lion killer when he returned home after breaking the world record last year, but the 800 meters favorite is hunting bigger game at the world championships.
The 22-year-old, speaking at a news conference Thursday ahead of the August 27-September 4 event, said that while owning the world record was special, someone could always come along and take it from you. As a world champion, or an Olympic gold medalist, there would be no such fears.
Rudisha was initiated as a Maasai warrior when he returned home after lowering Dane Wilson Kipketer’s record.
“It was really good to go back after breaking the records,” he added. “The people were really happy, they said what I had done was something like killing a lion.”
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.
The lanky Kenyan is unbeaten over the distance in two years, his last loss coming when he failed to qualify for the 2009 world championship final in Berlin.
“I have got a little bit more experienced and I have learned from my mistakes. Nowadays I’ve decided on a different way of running — running from the front.
“Sometimes when you are running from behind that is when you can get the problem of being boxed, bumping and pushing each other. If you’re strong I think it’s a good idea to run from the front.”
His unbeaten streak inevitably means he has a bullseye on his back and Rudisha knows his opponents will be gunning for him.
“Winning all the time is not easy, all the time the athletes are focusing on beating you, all the time you are a target. People are expecting me to do well, the only way I can answer them is … to do my part.”
Rudisha, whose father Daniel won a silver medal as part of Kenya’s 4×400 Olympic relay team in Mexico City in 1968, is not looking beyond the Daegu race, but after the world championships he knows the next big challenge will be the 2012 Olympics in London.
“The world record is something special but sometimes someone will come along and break it, he added. “But a world title, you will have it for the rest of your life.
“The Olympics and world championships are so important, and I’m really working very hard to make sure I get these two titles in my career.”source: www.reuters.com/article/
