King Rudisha takes over the reins

World 800m record holder David Rudisha displays the Sportsman of the Year award December 6, 2012 during a gala at Carnivore Restaurant, Nairobi CHRIS OMOLLO

What you need to know:

  • 800m World record holder is this year’s Sports Personality of the Year as Kenya’s finest feted

World record holder and 800m Olympic champion David Rudisha is the 2012 Sports Personality of the Year.

The 23-year-old who holds the World record in the two-lap race of 1:40.91 reclaimed the award he won in 2010 when he trounced a star-studded field of six sportsmen and women.

Rudisha, who set the London Olympic Stadium alight with a blistering pace to break his own record on August 9, beat other nominees Abraham Tarbei, Victor Wanyama, Mary Keitany, Vivian Cheruiyot, Ezekiel Kemboi and Jason Dunford for the top award.

Still basking in the glory of winning the IAAF Performance of the Year and Athletics Kenya  Athlete of the Year Awards the middle distance athlete from Kilgoris also clinched the Sportsman of the Year Award, beating 2004 Athens and 2012 London Olympic Games 3000m steeplechase champion Ezekiel Kemboi and international Celtic Football Club mid-fielder Victor Wanyama.

Rudisha at the age of 21 became for youngest ever athlete to win the IAAF World Athlete of the Year in November 21, 2010 before crowning the eventful year with the Soya Award.

Almost one year after winning the World 800m title in Daegu, South Korea, Rudisha not only ensured that the Olympic gold remained in Kenya but achieved it in style by breaking his own World record with a new time of 1:40.91.

It was Rudisha who broke the 13-year-old world record of 1:41.11 held by Kenyan-born Dane Wilson Kipketer and set on August 24, 1997, in Cologne, Germany. Rudisha clocked 1:41.09 in Berlin on August 29, 2010, and improved it a week later in Rieti with a time of 1:41.01.