David Rudisha put two years of injury problems behind him to win the gold medal in the 800 metres in Beijing yesterday.
The Kenyan was one of the stars of London 2012, breaking the world record with a scintillating front-running performance in the Olympic final. But a knee injury ruled him out of the following season and he had not seemed the same runner since, losing on a regular basis and admitting that he often could not complete training sessions because of the pain.
“It was very difficult for me to have a career-threatening injury,” the 24-year-old said.
“I had my problems. There was a bit of a doubt with my speed as every time I trained on my speed, I could feel my pain coming back on my knee so that worried me.”
However, Rudisha seldom looked in trouble as he picked his way through on the inside with 200 metres to go before sprinting clear, winning in 1min 45.84sec, with Adam Kszczot, of Poland, in second, and Amel Tuka, of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in third.
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“Today was more a tactical race and that’s what I wanted to do,” Rudisha added. “I knew I had my speed and there was really nothing to worry about because I wanted to run that way and control my speed and sprint in the last 150 [metres].”
Rudisha is embracing his next challenge at the Rio Games. “We’re going to start our preparation for 2016,” he added. “It’s a message I can win a tactical race as well as fast races like London. I can win any race the way I want it.”