A darling of the world, Rudisha is Kenya’s genuine global superstar

Kenya has produced an endless chain of Olympic and world champions over the last few decades but few of these have gone on to become household names and genuine global superstars.

David Rudisha could well be that rare exception.

Take a look at all the previews of the Commonwealth Games which began on Wednesday night in Glasgow and you will struggle to escape the name Rudisha in any of the stories.

When it was announced that the British home favourite, double 5,000m and 10,000m Olympic champion Mo Farah would not compete in the games, the BBC offered this consolation to readers: “In the athletics arena alone, these Glasgow Games can still look forward to the stellar talents of David Rudisha, the Olympic 800m champion and world record-holder, Kirani James, Olympic champion over 400m, and Olympic 100m hurdles gold medallist Sally Pearson.”

In its preview, the Guardian noted that one of the star attractions of the championship would be the young man from Kilgoris.

ONE-HOUR DOCUMENTARY

“Usain Bolt, Sir Bradley Wiggins (a British cyclist) and David Rudisha are among the stellar names that will grace stadiums and screens in the coming days. Other heroes will emerge while hearts will also be broken and dreams ended in Glasgow, a fitting stage for feats of bravura that will live long in the memory for those lucky enough to witness them.”

To use a football example which most Kenyan sports fans can relate to, when it comes to athletics, Rudisha and Bolt are the Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldos of the game.

The BBC broadcast a one-hour documentary chronicling Rudisha’s life on Tuesday night which Kenyan TV sports editors should really seek to bring to the domestic audience.

It was named 100 seconds to beat the world: The David Rudisha story after the athlete’s performance in winning the 800m title at the London Olympics and smashing his own world record in what the legendary British athlete Seb Coe has described as possibly the greatest Olympic performance of all time.

Rudisha ran from the front and dragged the whole field with him as he galloped alone racing only against the clock. It was such a fast race that the man who finished last would have been Olympic champion in the last three editions of the games.

The peculiar thing about the Rudisha story is that someone noticed the shy young man was special when he showed up at Brother Colm O’Connell’s training camp at St. Patrick’s Iten and began to film his training regime right from the age of 16.

So we see images of Rudisha putting up as a teenager in the dormitories there, sipping white chai and bread and taking off on morning runs under the watchful eye of Bro. O’Connell and another 800 metre great, Japhet Kimutai.

“I knew something great would come out of Rudisha. He was raw but in him we immediately began to see that we had in our hands the next 800m superstar in the mould of Billy Konchellah and Wilson Kipketer.”

Rudisha’s father, Daniel, won the silver medal at the 1968 Olympics as part of Kenya’s 4 x 400m relay team and it was the younger Rudisha’s ambition right from a young age to add to the family’s medal collection.

He began practicing in Kilgoris running barefoot but realised he needed to have some support structure around him and travelled all the way to Iten on his own after hearing of Bro. O’Connell’s training camp.

The images of kids sleeping in double decker beds in spare and simple rooms will be familiar to many Kenyans and the cameras track Rudisha’s journey from a shy youth who did not really believe in his abilities to the increasingly confident athlete who became world youth champion.

A focus of the documentary is on his relationship with Bro. O’Connell, the Irish missionary who has presided over the training of a succession of Olympic champions and who believed in Rudisha’s potential from the start.

After every term, Bro. O’Connell would write to the parents of some of his charges and a letter he wrote to Daniel Rudisha dated April 27, 2005 thanked the elder Rudisha for releasing the athlete to Iten and summarised his view of the athlete: “He can be successful and we will continue to support him but you need to support him, too.”

In an interview, Rudisha’s father said that his son’s performances were a source of pride not least because his friends now know he was not lying when he told them he, too, was a successful athlete. “Wanaona kweli mzee hakuwa muongo wakati alisema alikuwa anakimbia.” (They can now see I was speaking the truth when I said I was a runner)

The most important part of the Rudisha story was the way he recovered from adversity. He was shattered when he failed to make the team to the Beijing Olympics due to injury.

Then in the 2009 World Athletics Championships, he suffered his most important defeat when he failed to make it to the final of the championship after leaving his kick to the last minute. That’s when he made his big decision to run from the front in all his races, just like the legendary Henry Rono and John Ngugi, who were both famed for not relying on pace makers.

On the track, at 8pm on August 9 2012, in London, his strategy brought him worldwide fame when he led from start to finish, tearing the field apart and smashing the world record in thrilling style.

It is a risky strategy and in the Commonwealth Games he will be up against several young stars including Botswana’s Nijel Amos, 20, who have learnt to trail Rudisha and then kick in the last 200m.

Whatever happens at the championships, Kenya can pride itself in having produced a genuine global superstar and Rudisha should serve as a model to encourage the creation of a national academy system to nurture talent, rather than just relying on them to spring up from nowhere as Kenya always has.           
David Rudisha will run in the 800m on Tuesday afternoon.