The Kenyan’s finely-honed build-up to the London Games paid off with a late, world record-breaking surge that gave him victory by almost a second in 1:40.91
London was very special. It was my Olympic debut. In 2008, I was preparing for Beijing, but I wasn’t that lucky. I injured myself racing in Ostrava so I had to just focus on my high school exams that year and keep going to my classes.
By contrast, 2012 was very much within my reach, and I started preparation from a long way out. Tracking my performances from 2009-2011, it was all just the build-up for 2012. By that time, I had more experience. I had already mastered my races, I knew exactly what to do, and how to execute my competitions.
I started 2012 very well. I went to Australia and did a few races and then came back to Kenya to prepare for the main season. I didn’t do so many races that year because I didn’t want to tire out before the championships. But the ones I did were high quality.
I ran 1:41 twice – once in Paris and once in New York. We were very confident that we were on the right path because we were moving forward. We were just praying that we didn’t get any issues with injury and so forth, plus I was also praying for good weather and perfect conditions for that night of the final. I’m glad that our prayers were answered.
Going into an Olympics, there is a lot of pressure. It is enormous. You’re representing your country, you have so many fans around across the world and so many people watch the Olympics. But I knew well that I was strong – and I was in my best form of my life.
I needed just to believe in myself, and have that confidence going out there. I already had a plan on what I was going to do in that final, then I was just trying my best to make sure that I stuck to my plan.
David Rudisha (Getty)
Because I was a front runner, it was much easier for me to execute the splits. My plan was to close the first 400m in 49 seconds, and do something like 1:14 for 600m, which I was able to achieve because I can really control my pace in a calculated way.
Sometimes it’s not easy because during the race someone can interrupt you or decide to go crazy in the first 200m or the first 400m. It can disrupt your plan, but I was crossing my fingers that everything went well.
The cool thing was that the other guys knew that I was a front runner, and they knew that normally I didn’t take it easy. I wasn’t the kind of person who can go forward and slow the pace at a given time. They knew I was going to go fast.
I wasn’t also expecting the world record. I knew that I was going for a fast race but, in the 800m, it’s hard to break a world record without a pacesetter. In most of the races, we had the help of the rabbit. What really gave me a lot of confidence was running 1:42.0 in the Kenyan trials. I said: “Wow, I was that close to 1:41 without a pacemaker.” Then I said: “Well, why can’t I just try that in the Olympics?”
The final was fast. The first lap took 49 seconds and 1:14 for 600m, as I’d laid out. But when I looked at the big screen, just when I was approaching the 600m mark, I saw the guys were right behind me. I asked myself: “Am I not going that fast?” I felt like I was pushing but previously, during a race of 1:41, normally you would see a bit of a gap.
I held myself a little bit after 600m, just to make sure that I didn’t really tire in the last 100m. When I saw the others right behind me, in my mind, I felt: “Am I going to die?” I’d given it my best. I’d been trying to push fast, so let me keep something in the tank at least for the last 150m. I didn’t really move with complete smoothness until I was coming out of the back straight.
At the finish, when I saw the big clock with the time and results, that’s when I realised that these guys were also very fast … no wonder they were just behind me!
Andrew Osagie and David Rudisha (Getty)
That night was really great. It was a special achievement. I contacted my coach, Brother Colm, who was watching from Kenya. He was really happy because to break a world record in an Olympic final is a great achievement and I was really happy to win a gold medal. That was my ultimate point to go to.
Preparing to go to the Olympics was very special, because my father was a silver medallist in 1968 and sometimes, when I was young, I used to tease him with: “You won silver and you’ll never go back to the track again but I have a chance to be better than you.”
We used to laugh because he knew being second gave me a chance to win against him. It was a joke that came to pass and it’s really nice sometimes when you see a young person telling you something like that, but then making sure that they stay the course and work hard. He is talking the talk and walking the walk.
When I went back, I told my father: “Now we are two Olympians.” I could see his emotion. I was very proud and happy about my achievement as well.Â
 As told to Mark Woods
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