David Rudisha runs world 500m best at Great North City Games. PHOTO /courtesy.
OSTRAVA, Czech Republic, Apr 28 – Organisers of the Golden Spike have announced that two-time Olympic 800m champion David Rudisha will make his 1000m debut at the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Ostrava, Czech Republic, on 28 June.
“I’m really looking forward to my race in Ostrava,” Rudisha said. “It will be my third race of the season but most interestingly for me it’s my first time to run 1000 metres!”
Testing himself in off distances isn’t anything new for Rudisha who last season in his run-up to a successful Olympic 800m title defence, broke the African record over 600m at the Birmingham leg of the IAAF Diamond League, clocking 1:13.10.
But going up in distance is uncharted territory for the 28-year-old, who famously broke his own 800m world record in the 2012 Olympic final.
“I’m excited to try this race. People are always asking me how would I run at 1500. I always say that’s too far to run against the miler guys! But 1000m is of course shorter and closer to my racing distance.
“I’ve got no time or plan in mind but I’m excited to test myself and see what I can do,” added Rudisha, who will be competing in the Czech city for the fifth time.
One publicly unstated goal could be the meeting record of 2:15.08 set by Ilham Tanui Ozbilen of Turkey in 2014, the fastest time that year over the rarely-run distance.
Rudisha is the latest Olympic champion announced for the meeting’s 56th edition.
Previously announced were 400m world record holder and Rio winner Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa who’ll contest the 300m, double world and Olympic champion Mo Farah of Great Britain, who’ll compete in the 10,000m, Thomas Rohler of Germany, who’ll contest the javelin, and Christian Taylor of the US in the triple jump.
