African Sports Monthly January 2013 Issue | Page 31

A Look back at the athletics during
the London 2012 Olympic Games

David Rudisha of Kenya celebrating his victory and record breaking
performance in London

By Annimari Korte (London UK)
Usain Bolt received multiple athlete of the year awards by becoming a legend with his ‘TripleDouble’ at the London 2012 Olympic games, but David Rudisha’s world record run was the performance of the games.
David Rudisha broke the 800m world record with 1.40.91seconds, and he did it at the Olympic final.
It was the fastest ever 800m race in history from first to last place and the Kenyan ran the last 600m
pretty much alone.
Even Sebastian Coe was quoted as saying: “Bolt was good, but Rudisha was magnificent. It was the
performance of the Games, not just in track and field, but of the entire Games.”
Africans dominated the 800m race as silver went to Nijel Amos from Botswana and bronze to Timothy Kitum from Kenya.
Usain Bolt did achieve something no one has done before. He won three sprint gold medals in two
Olympic games. Still, we did not see another world record from him.
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