Rudisha can break 800m record: Bungei

What you need to know:

  • Olympic champion says David is more than capable of setting a new mark

Breaking the men’s world 800 metres record is very much achievable, Olympic champion Wilfred Bungei believes.

Bungei, who has captained the national team to two major events, bets on David Rudisha is one of the likely candidates to lower the mark.

The other runner, according to Bungei, who also has the potential of breaking the record of 1:41.11 currently held by Wilson Kipketer of Denmark, is Abubaker Kaki of Sudan.

“With best advice, Rudisha can do it. He is young, the same as Kaki,” the Beijing Olympics 800m champion said in Nakuru on Friday.

Under pressure

Bungei conceded that openly declaring an athlete as the favourite in a race puts pressure on the runner and urged the media to be cultivating a culture of teamwork when the country’s athletes are preparing for international duty.

He revealed that prior to going to Beijing, he decided not to read either newspapers or internet because he did not want anything to distract his focus.

“Before going to Beijing I requested my wife to keep all newspapers that wrote on me so that I could read them after the Games,” he said. Bungei, who is also an ardent golf player at Nandi Bears club in Nandi Hills, said athletes at times fear meeting the press not for anything but misunderstanding.

He also plays tennis but, surprisingly, he does not watch football.

Bungei, whose wish is to become an entrepreneur in future, said close and regular interaction between members of the media and athletes can do a lot in development of the sport.

Bungei spoke when he officially opened a two-day seminar for sports writers in Nakuru just before the third New KCC/AK weekend meeting.

Bungei, who is an ambassador for the event, said although he will not be running in the championships, he would like to see it succeed.

He appealed to local authorities to support the championships by allowing free display of billboards advertising the event.

The chief executive officer of the LOC, David Okeyo, said at the closure of the event that the committee had written to all local authorities requesting for the same.

Diamond League

Meanwhile, Olympic and world champion Usain Bolt’s 100 metres race with Jamaican compatriot Asafa Powell is proof the Diamond League will bring athletics to centre stage, an official of the new circuit said on Monday.

According to Patrick Magyar, vice chairman of the Diamond League board and organiser of the Zurich meeting, the series will be for athletics what Formula One is to motor racing and the grand slam is to tennis.

“If you want to see the best, you are going to watch the Diamond League and the big championships,” Magyar told Reuters by telephone from Switzerland.

Bolt and Powell, the current and former 100 metres world record holders, will go head-to-head July 16 in Paris, organisers said on Monday in the first announced key match-up for the Diamond League.

“There will be more,” said Magyar, who was instrumental in forming the 14-meeting global circuit which launches May 14 in Doha.

- Additional reporting by Reuters