NAIROBI, Kenya, March 2- Olympics and world champion, Asbel Kiprop had a bad day in office on Friday when he could only return fifth at the Melbourne Track Classic in Australia.
Kiprop, who won the 800m race at the Sydney track classic led from the middle stretch of the race on a gusty evening at Lakeside stadium, but faded coming into the last lap to post a time of 3:42.52, over four seconds shy of local winner Ryan Gregson.
“I don’t know exactly what happened. It was not my day today. This is sports,” Kiprop, told the Australian Star after the race.
“I did 10 seconds slower than what I was expecting. It doesn’t disappoint me at all.
“Since November when we started the build up, we concentrated only on long runs. So I’ll go home now and go to prepare well to do speed work and to train hard,” he added.
The time was also over 12 seconds short of his personal best set at Rieti last year, and marked his third consecutive disappointment in Melbourne over the distance, having lost to Australia’s Jeff Riseley in the previous two meetings.
World champion and record holder, David Rudisha, was scheduled to compete in his two lap speciality at the same meeting having finished second at the Sydney Track Classic when he went down the distance to 400m.
