Story by Colin Tung/Red Sports

Sunday, August 22, 2010 — Two days short of celebrating its 13th anniversary, Wilson Kipketer’s 800m world record of 1 minute 41.11 seconds, set on August 24, 1997, in Cologne, Germany, has been broken. 21-year-old David Rudisha of Kenya (he turns 22 on December 17) broke the record by two hundredths of a second with his 1:41.09 at the ISTAF IAAF World Challenge meet in Berlin.

Close to two weeks ago, Wilson Kipketer was asked by this writer while he was conducting a track-and-field clinic in Singapore ahead of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) whether he thought his 800m world record would be broken soon by either Rudisha or Sudan’s Abubaker Kaki (also 21 years old).

His answer then was that he did not know when but “if the record stays too long, it is not good for the sport.”

So one wonders what Kipketer is thinking now that David Rudisha has finally broken it.

Many track-and-field observers have been anticipating the fall of the Kenyan-born Dane’s world record since Rudisha, in September 2009 at a IAAF Grand Prix meeting in Italy, broke the then 25-year-old African record of 1:42.28, set by compatriot Sammy Koskei, with a 1:42.01.

Impressive performances in the low-1:42s and subsequently sub-1:42 in 2010 only served to heighten expectations. He clocked 1:42.04 at the Bislett Games in Belgium in June and 1:41.51 (for the second fastest 800m of all time at the time) at the KBC Night of Athletics also in Belgium one month later.

So, it became a matter of when, and not if, he will break the world record.

And on August 22, at 3.35pm (Berlin time), Rudisha lined up for the start of the 800m at the ISTAF IAAF World Challenge meet in Berlin for his date with destiny.

Kenya’s Sammy Tangui rabbited the race and went through the first 400m in 48.65 seconds. Rudisha followed close behind and went through in the low 49s, on pace for the world record.

Having done his job, Tangui moved aside after another approximately 50m to allow Rudisha through. It was all Rudisha from then on as he crossed the finish line in 1:41.09, taking two hundredths of a second off the world record.

Yet to turn 22 with his birthday on December 17, Rudisha still has much room for improvement and with competition in the form of Abubaker Kaki, who himself has a personal best of 1:42.23 and has beaten Rudisha several times before, track-and-field connoisseurs could still see a battle royale like none since Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett.

The 800m world record could well be brought into unchartered territory in the 1:40s and thereon, who is to say Man cannot run two laps of a track in under 1:40?