NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 31 – The Kenyan trio of Michael Saruni, Ferguson Rotich and Emmanuel Korir all easily glided into the final of the 800m after coming through their hearts on Saturday.
Rotich and Korir won their heats, though the latter had to dig deep in the final 50m, same as Michael Saruni who however finished second in his heat.
Running in the opening heat of the two-lap competition, Rotich comfortably sat in the middle of the leading pack but at the bell, began to show intent. He galloped upfront as Australia’s Peter Bol and Britain’s Gille Eliott pumped up the pace.
In the final 200m, he began to move upfront and increased his pace, beating up the two ahead of him to cross the finish line in a time of 1:43.75.
Rotich’s finishing time was the fastest qualifying time across all theheats and also the fastest ever 800m run outside a final at the Olympic Games.
Rotich, the world bronze medalist looked comfortable in his run and never seemed to struggle an inch.
Meanwhile, Saruni who made his first ever Olympics in a team Kenya singlet had to dig deep before coming through second in heat two. The American based athlete had stuck at fourth from the bell and seemed to be waning in the final lap.
However, he dug deep into his energy reserves in the final 50m to power home and cross the finish line in 1:45.21, second to Botswana’s Amos Nijel, the fastest man over the distance this season. Nijel timed 1:45.04.
In heat six, Korir beat Poland’s Mateusz Barkowski with a microsecond after finishing first in a time of 1:45:33, the Pole coming in second in 1:45.34.
Korir had stuck to the middle for most of the race until he pumped up the pace in the final 50m to power home through the top three automatic qualification slots.