Berlin: Kenya’s David Lekuta Rudisha set a new world record of one minute 41.09 seconds in the 800 metres on Sunday at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.
His time shaved two hundredths of a second off the previous best mark set by Denmark’s Kenyan-born Wilson Kipketer in August 1997.
The 21-year-old, world junior champion in the same distance in 2006, was led through the first 400m by pacesetter Sammy Tangui in 48.65sec.
“This was my first real attempt to break the world record, I knew I was good, I had trained hard,” he said.“Now that I have run that time, I can say I have the ability to improve and go faster.”
Rudisha then managed to keep up his pace through to the line to break Kipketer’s long-standing record, something he had recently been threatening to do so promising has been his form on the track.At a meet in the Belgian city of Heusden-Zolder in July, Rudisha timed 1:41.51, an African record and the fastest time in the world since Kipketer set the previous best 13 years ago.
AFP
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