The world 800m champion believes anything is possible over the distance, including athletes getting near David Rudisha’s mark of 1:40.91
It’s been 12 years since David Rudisha set his world 800m record and no one has come close to breaking it.
His 1:40.91 to win Olympic gold at London 2012, which saw the Kenyan run the race gun to tape, was described by Seb Coe as “the standout performance of the Games”.
No athlete apart from Rudisha has ever gone sub-1:41 over two laps, with Wilson Kipketer’s 1:41.11 from 1997 still being closest.
However, at last week’s Paris Diamond League (July 7), Djamel Sedjati, Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Gabriel Tual made everyone believe that anything is now possible.
The trio, in one of the greatest 800m races in history, battled it out to the line and clocked 1:41.56, 1:41.58 and 1:41.61 respectively.
Sedjati, Wanyonyi and Tual smashed their own personal bests and went third, fourth and fifth on the all-time 800m list.
Djamel Sedjati holds off Emmanuel Wanyonyi (right) and Gabriel Tual (right) (Getty)
The Algerian’s winning time of 1:41.56 was the fastest 800m since Rudisha clocked his 1:40.91 at London 2012.
The good news is that we don’t have long to wait for the next men’s 800m.
There will be no Wanyonyi at the Monaco Diamond League (July 12) but Sedjati and Tual will clash again. They will be joined by world 800m champion Marco Arop and bronze medallist Ben Pattison.
Arop, speaking at the press conference, now believes Rudisha’s world 800m record isn’t untouchable.
“I’m hoping I can break 1:42 at some point,” Arop said. The training has been going really well and based off the results, I’m definitely in that sort of shape.
“I also believe, seeing that race in Paris and with those three guys running massive personal bests, it goes to show that when you put your mind to and go after it, you don’t really know what you’re capable of.
“I think that world record is definitely within the horizon now. I don’t know who’s going to break it but we’ve got plenty of guys who are now in range.”
Marco Arop (centre) with Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Ben Pattison (Getty)
Arop, who is known to front run like Rudisha, has a personal best of 1:42.85 and is currently 37th on the all-time list. Ahead of the Olympics, he wants to go a lot quicker.
“The season’s been good so far,” he added. “I opened up with a 1:43.61 in my first Diamond League of the season [Xiamen] and that was the fastest I’ve ever gone in a season opener.
“I’m hoping to run a lot faster now and when I saw these guys running 1:41, I got very excited. At some point, I’ll get down to that level. It’s a really good time for the men’s 800m.
“I’m just a big fan of the sport and even though I wasn’t in the race, I loved watching them run. I first met Gabriel [Tual] at the Tokyo Olympics and I’ve seen his journey. It’s incredible seeing them and hopefully we’ll have great competition ahead of and in Paris.”
Tual enjoyed the benefits of a home crowd in the French capital last week and he’ll no doubt get a similar kind of reception in Monaco.
After this 1:41.61, the Frenchman went ahead of Coe on the all-time list and is now the second quickest European over 800m after Kipketer. How wants to back that up in the principality.
Gabriel Tual in Paris (Getty)
“It’s been great,” he said. “My legs are fine and I hope I will run that fast again. It’s crazy [to be ahead of Coe] and still quite hard for me to understand! The fact that the Olympics are in a few weeks means that I will stay focused though.
“I’m here to run 1:41 again and I want to prove that I can run quickly consistently. The competition helps us to push us through our limits.
“Last year I had a really big injury and I couldn’t run properly but still managed to clock 1:44. In my mind, it changed my thought process a bit. Right now, I’m in the races both mentally and physically. The race in Paris was fluid and there were no pushes. I was just running at my pace without being disturbed. I wasn’t thinking about my legs hurting. I wanted to win and it helped me with the time.”
READ MORE: Monaco preview
Other athletes in the men’s 800m to watch in Monaco are Eliott Crestan, Benjamin Robert, Andreas Kramer, Aaron Kemei Cheminingwa, Cătălin Tecuceanu and Mohamed Attaoui.
Timetable and results here
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