OSTRAVA, Czech Republic, April 6 – David Rudisha, the World 800m record holder and 2010 World Athlete of the Year, will make his 1000m debut at the jubilee 50th Ostrava Golden Spike Meeting on May 31.
It will be Rudisha’s fourth appearance in the Czech city (second in 2008 and winner in 2009 and 2010), and it will be the first time that the 1000m has been staged in Ostrava.
"I’m very happy to be running again in Ostrava,” Rudisha told IAAF. “It is a good meeting, of course one of my favourites. This year it’s exciting for me to be running a new distance, my first time to try 1000 metres.”
“I understand why people might ask me about the World record but really I can’t talk of this yet…..I aim to run a strong race and to run well but I think it is not realistic to think of World record for my first attempt at the distance. Maybe in the future I can come back to do this in Ostrava," concluded Rudisha who has run 800m twice so far this year in Australia (1:43.88 and 1:44:80) winning both races.
Rudisha is currently training in his Iten base in readiness for the start of the circuit season at the end of the month.
