By Joshua Kemboi, KTN SPORTS EDITOR
For one minute, 40.91 seconds, Kenyans stood still as David Rudisha tore through the track inside the Olympic stadium in London to deliver Kenya’s second gold medal at the 30th Olympic.
Rudisha delivered the gold medal in a new world record time of 1:40.91 minutes. Botswana’s Nigel Amos finished second in a national record time of 1:41.73 while Timothy Kitum clinched bronze in 1:42.53.
That is Kitum’s personal best time. Rudisha heat the lead from the turn and maintained it all through to the tape. He had promised not to let Kenyan’s down and indeed his victory helped to calm Kenyans who had begun to lose hope after Kenya failed to retain the 1500m men’s title.
Rudisha’s record breaking heroics came a few seconds after defending women’s 800m Olympic champion Pamela Jelimo and Janeth Jepkosgei qualified for the finals set for Saturday.
The Kenyan stars will face off with South Africa’s caster Semenya in Saturday’s final.
Jelimo won the first heat in a slow time of one minute, 59.42 seconds. She was joined in the final by Poistogova Ekaterina of Russia who finished in one minute, 59.45 seconds.
Janeth Jepkosgei qualified as the fastest in the second semi final heat but the third Kenyan, Cherono Koech was not successful in the third heat to semi-finals.
Jelimo started slowly but upped her pace and maintained the lead. South Africa’s Caster Semenya was the winner in the second semi final in a season’s best time of one minute, 57.67 seconds
