by Larry Eder
David Rudisha, photo by PhotoRun.net
David Rudisha is a man of some complexity. In a press conference, he is quietly spoken, but with authority.
On the track, David Rudisha is a fearless competitor. His speed, and his drive take him to a place few others can fathom, much alone run near.
This short piece is a fun one, regarding my shared taxi ride from
JFK to the hotel for the adidas Grand Prix.
David Rudisha, is, after all human.
The world record holder and gold medalist from London may seem immortal, but long air flights from Europe wear one out.
As I was doing the one day of travel from Birmingham to NYC, not too bad, I had, by circumstance, arrived in JFK the same time.
The adidas GP crew met me and asked if I would like to share a cab with “David”. For some reason, I was thinking David Oliver.
I did not think it would be David Rudisha.
While I have interviewed David countless times and watched him race many more, I am still awestruck by some of the athletes, and David Rudisha is one of the great ones.
Julius Yego, Birmingham 2015, photo by PhotoRun.net
David is a bit of a fan of athletics, and we began speaking about Julius Yego, who had just thrown 91.39 meters in the javelin. Yego, the fourth placer in London, learnt much of the technique on the javelin from You Tube videos. Yego now trains with Finnish coaches, but one of the most popular and respected Kenyan athletes (he was team captain in 2012), Yego just had a defining moment on 7 June.
In his last throw, Julius Yego threw so far the crowd gasped as his javelin landed meters farther that Vitislav Vesely’s 88.18m meters. At first the throw was called a foul, but Yego requested a revisit and through the wonders of modern science, they showed that his javelin was, in fact, in sector by the smallest of measurements.
Julius Yego, photo by PhotoRun.net
The throw, 91.39 meters, was a Kenyan record, African record, Meet record and Diamond League record.
“I competed in a decathlon with Julius” noted the ever smiling Rudisha. ” Julius was in his second form and I was in fourth form” noted David.
“In the javelin, I threw 43 meters, ” laughed David, ” and Yego threw 67 meters, I think.”
Then, the competitiveness came in. “But, in the 1,500 meters, I got Julius.” And then, David Rudisha laughed and smiled, and noted, ” I lapped him in the 1,500 meters.”
I got a kick out of that story and shared it with his manager, James Templeton.
Rudisha will be running the 800 meters in New York, as he has each year since 2012. He is healthy, and in pretty good shape, but the road to Beijing begins here for David Rudisha, after an early season set back in Ostrava.
David Rudisha, photo by PhotoRun.net
