:00:00. > :00:09.overlooked to meet targets. Now on BBC News, extratime.
:00:10. > :00:12.We have come to Birmingham today to meet an athlete who rivals Usain
:00:13. > :00:17.Bolt in terms of fame and achievement, but there the
:00:18. > :00:21.comparison ends. He isn't a sprinter but a middle`distance runner who won
:00:22. > :00:27.Olympic gold at the London Games two years ago and broke his own record
:00:28. > :00:32.in the 800 metres final. What motivates David Rudisha and what are
:00:33. > :00:35.his plans for the future? We are about to find out.
:00:36. > :01:02.David Rudisha, a very warm welcome to this edition of extratime.
:01:03. > :01:13.I want to throw you a quote from Lord Coe, himself a legendary
:01:14. > :01:16.middle`distance runner. He said your world record win in the 800 metres
:01:17. > :01:20.at the London Olympics came from consummate physical and mental
:01:21. > :01:25.confidence. Is that you, a man with consummate mental and physical
:01:26. > :01:34.confidence? Well, actually, I must say that that race was special. Even
:01:35. > :01:43.myself I watch it on YouTube from time to time and I even ask myself,
:01:44. > :02:01.is it David Rudisha? If I must say, I started really preparing a long,
:02:02. > :02:05.long time before the 2012 Olympics. I remember even back in 2006, our
:02:06. > :02:08.coach was advising us and telling us, where will you be in 2012? So,
:02:09. > :02:12.that was something that stayed in my mind and it was always crossing my
:02:13. > :02:19.mind that one time I would get there in good health and good shape. I
:02:20. > :02:23.found everything was just perfect for the night. And it was not just
:02:24. > :02:36.myself, because I saw in that race everybody did something special.
:02:37. > :02:40.Either national records or personal bests or indeed your own world
:02:41. > :02:43.record. Absolutely. I think I'm right in saying that all eight of
:02:44. > :02:46.them, the finalists, would have actually won a gold medal at the
:02:47. > :02:48.previous Olympics in Beijing. Yes. An extraordinary race. One
:02:49. > :02:51.commentator in the Guardian newspaper in the UK described the
:02:52. > :03:01.race as being led by you in a speedboat, with seven other
:03:02. > :03:03.waterskiers behind. You pulled everybody through with that
:03:04. > :03:07.extraordinary pace that you managed. Not just on the second lap, but on
:03:08. > :03:25.the first as well. It's an interesting image. Yes. That race, I
:03:26. > :03:28.was really determined. From the history of our family, my father was
:03:29. > :03:31.a silver`medallist at the Olympics in 1968 in Mexico. Your father
:03:32. > :03:34.Daniel, yes. Yes. I didn't want to take any chances in that race and
:03:35. > :03:38.because I had that confidence, I knew I was better in that race and I
:03:39. > :03:42.was in good shape, I wanted to take it in a special way and just lead
:03:43. > :03:45.from the front and push, try to see if I can even go and break the
:03:46. > :04:02.Olympic championship record, which was 142.5. In the long run,
:04:03. > :04:06.something special came out. Take us to the start line and how you felt
:04:07. > :04:09.on the start line, looking around you at all these other athletes.
:04:10. > :04:12.Actually, you know, sometimes when you are there at that moment, in the
:04:13. > :04:16.Olympics, what comes first in your mind is this is the Olympics and
:04:17. > :04:33.this is going to take four years before it comes again and this is
:04:34. > :04:42.the final. You are more like, this is championships, it's a tactical
:04:43. > :04:45.race and anything can happen. On the other hand, sometimes you just feel
:04:46. > :04:59.like, I don't want to make enemies here. So, what I was thinking was
:05:00. > :05:03.just to be on the safe side right from the beginning and that is just
:05:04. > :05:08.to be at the front, because that has been my running tactic and my
:05:09. > :05:12.running way since 2009. Normally when I'm at the front, sometimes I
:05:13. > :05:18.am out of the traffic. So I can control the race. Because I knew I
:05:19. > :05:23.was going to hit it hard. I knew as soon as I get into the front then I
:05:24. > :05:27.was going to control the race. But the most important thing, I was also
:05:28. > :05:30.trying to do the calculation and everything and of course the pacing
:05:31. > :05:33.to see how I would cross the first 200, the 400, which is the most
:05:34. > :05:47.important thing, then push down to 200 and try to finish strong in the
:05:48. > :05:52.last 200. I was thinking a lot in that race. I'm going to quote Lord
:05:53. > :05:55.Coe again now because he talks about the third 200 metres, between 400
:05:56. > :06:04.and 600,as a kind of killing zone, where the body is really struggling
:06:05. > :06:08.to gather oxygen. But it's the most effective and most painful part of
:06:09. > :06:14.the race. Does that resonate with you? Do you understand what he means
:06:15. > :06:17.when he talks of the killing zone? Well, to be honest, normally when I
:06:18. > :06:30.hear the bell it changes everything and I feel like, wow, we have now
:06:31. > :06:41.gone past the middle. How far ahead were you on the bell? I was just a
:06:42. > :06:45.metre. Something like one metre. Then going down to 600, I pushed and
:06:46. > :07:00.I was about four or three metres, something like that. Normally that's
:07:01. > :07:03.where I normally push, right from the bell to 200 and then try to
:07:04. > :07:07.maintain that pace. At what point did you know the race was won? When
:07:08. > :07:20.I was coming down to 300 bend, wow, I saw these guys were strong. After
:07:21. > :07:23.the bell, I tried to push hard to 600. Then when I looked at the
:07:24. > :07:34.screen in front of me, I thought I put in a very big gap behind. Then
:07:35. > :07:41.when I saw the screen, I saw this guy was just a few metres. Then
:07:42. > :07:44.inside I said, this is a championship race, I have to make
:07:45. > :07:56.sure that I have something left in the last 50, in case these guys come
:07:57. > :07:59.and attack. So I didn't know exactly what that pace was but what really
:08:00. > :08:03.clicked in my mind, I was worried about these guys, they were not far,
:08:04. > :08:13.just to realise they were also running fast and everybody was
:08:14. > :08:17.clear of all of the bumping and clear of all of the bumping and
:08:18. > :08:20.barging that often goes on in an 800 metres race because you led from the
:08:21. > :08:22.front. This is a predictable question but I'll ask it
:08:23. > :08:25.nevertheless. When you crossed the line, you are an Olympic champion
:08:26. > :08:46.and then a few moments later you look at that time, 140.91, and
:08:47. > :08:53.you're a new recordholder. `` one minute 40.91. How can anybody absorb
:08:54. > :08:57.something like that? It is so enormous, isn't it? Yeah. Let me say
:08:58. > :09:01.that I knew I was going for a very fast time. In my mind, going into
:09:02. > :09:04.the Olympic final, I was trying 1.41 on my own, which nobody has ever
:09:05. > :09:17.done without the help of a pacemaker. As I was pushing that
:09:18. > :09:25.race, I knew it was 1.41 quality. When I crossed the line, I crossed
:09:26. > :09:31.fast. That was the most important thing to me. The gold medal was more
:09:32. > :09:35.important than the world record? Yes. To win the gold medal was the
:09:36. > :09:39.most important thing for me. I was pushing to make sure that these
:09:40. > :09:44.guys, I destroy them and they don't get near me. So, crossing that line,
:09:45. > :09:50.first I was happy to win the gold medal. And then when I look at the
:09:51. > :10:01.clock, I was actually looking for if I have got the championships record.
:10:02. > :10:08.Just to see WR, world record, I didn't even see the time clearly, I
:10:09. > :10:13.started celebrating. It was such a great moment. I felt so happy
:10:14. > :10:21.because it's something that is unbelievable, to do something like
:10:22. > :10:27.that in an Olympics. The 800 metres, such an unbelievable race. You used
:10:28. > :10:31.the word "destroy" just now. I'm thinking now of a quote from the 400
:10:32. > :10:34.metres hurdle legend, Ed Moses, who said that during his whole career he
:10:35. > :10:43.felt like a gladiator. You don't have to have a sword but you go out
:10:44. > :10:46.with the same mentality. You are very softly spoken, gentle looking
:10:47. > :10:52.man, but inside you there has to be a ruthlessness? Well, yes, I must
:10:53. > :11:04.say that I usually like my compatriots, the guys we are running
:11:05. > :11:07.with. Normally, even during the competition, in this Diamond League
:11:08. > :11:11.and even in the championships, some of them come and ask me, "What pace
:11:12. > :11:25.are you going today?" Sometimes I don't hide them. I tell them, today
:11:26. > :11:34.we're going for a fast race. Today I want to do 1.43, 1.42. They just nod
:11:35. > :11:38.their heads. So you play a bit of psychology on them? Not really
:11:39. > :11:45.because most of the targets, I have always been meeting them. Even when
:11:46. > :12:02.I was going for the world record, I think the first
:12:03. > :12:06.time I didn't speak to the media. I only spoke to my coach and manager
:12:07. > :12:10.and we said, I don't even want to talk to the media because if I talk
:12:11. > :12:13.to the media and I don't make it then I might get disappointed. But I
:12:14. > :12:17.just want to try because I feel like it's there. Let me take you back to
:12:18. > :12:21.your childhood. What was life like for you as a young boy in Kenya? I
:12:22. > :12:25.grew up like any other child in a village in Masai. Our main job and
:12:26. > :12:37.our work as young people is to help our parents in looking after our
:12:38. > :12:42.hut, our cows. That's what we used to do before school. When did you
:12:43. > :12:49.first discover that you had a particular talent as a runner? At
:12:50. > :12:57.that time, when I was young, I knew my father was an Olympic athlete. He
:12:58. > :13:05.was the only person in our region, we don't have many Masai running. So
:13:06. > :13:13.I was always proud to try to be the best. Your father encouraged you?
:13:14. > :13:16.Yes. I was trying to be the best in the group but sometimes it was
:13:17. > :13:21.difficult because we didn't have any training and some in the group were
:13:22. > :13:25.better than me at that time. Even now, if I meet them, they always
:13:26. > :13:28.tell me, do you remember we used to beat you? But you're not a bad
:13:29. > :13:38.loser, are you? I don't sense you're a bad loser. Of course, we just have
:13:39. > :13:41.fun. But I tell them, "Try now. That was then, try now". You've moved on
:13:42. > :13:55.a bit. Tell me a bit about the priest who
:13:56. > :14:09.came to Kenya and brought you up and brought you to the UK. He played a
:14:10. > :14:13.very big part in my career. I knew him back in 2004, that was the first
:14:14. > :14:34.time I saw him, the first time I came near him. `` but I didn't come
:14:35. > :14:36.near him. At that time, I was running for the primary
:14:37. > :14:40.championships at a provisional level, then it happened that we came
:14:41. > :14:43.to Britain and we were staying in St Patrick's high school. In the
:14:44. > :14:47.morning, I saw the white man walking, he always went for a walk
:14:48. > :14:53.in the morning. When I saw him, I was shy, I couldn't get near him. I
:14:54. > :15:04.asked the guys in the school, how does he select his athletes to join
:15:05. > :15:08.his programme? They say, if you do well in competition, sometimes he
:15:09. > :15:19.will see you and he can go scouting and see some of the potential, then
:15:20. > :15:21.bring them into his camp. The extraordinary thing about brother
:15:22. > :15:24.Colm Eassie has no particular professional experience. He has made
:15:25. > :15:35.these athletes out of nothing in particular. What is his particular
:15:36. > :15:40.talent? I think it is the passion. The passion that he has in
:15:41. > :15:43.athletics. It is also more like he has a lot of experience, especially
:15:44. > :15:48.in bringing up the junior and the youth athletes. That is his main
:15:49. > :15:56.programme, actually, because that is what he does. Training and coaching
:15:57. > :16:07.young kids, who were under the age of 20, and since then, that is when
:16:08. > :16:10.I learned a lot of things. Back in the village, I didn't have the
:16:11. > :16:12.coaching, and I was just doing random training, running on the
:16:13. > :16:24.hills, just going for something like 20 minutes at high speed. You didn't
:16:25. > :16:28.know what you are doing, effectively. So he pulled it all
:16:29. > :16:31.together, and they understand that the philosophy at St Patrick's is
:16:32. > :16:34.about hard work and dedication. You are talented and ambitious, but in
:16:35. > :16:48.the end it is hard work that takes you to a gold medal. Yes. Even in
:16:49. > :16:52.that camp, we have seen very talented guys, because we'll come
:16:53. > :16:56.there. But not all of us make it to a senior level or to a professional
:16:57. > :16:58.level. Some of them are very talented, but they end up becoming
:16:59. > :17:08.lazy, or they don't follow the instructions they are being given.
:17:09. > :17:12.And they end up just destroying their career like that. We talked at
:17:13. > :17:18.length about your Olympic triumph in London two years ago. You were in
:17:19. > :17:22.Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games, following a long layoff from a knee
:17:23. > :17:25.injury. In the end, you didn't win gold at the Commonwealth, you won
:17:26. > :17:37.silver. How did you take that defeat? Actually, let me say that I
:17:38. > :17:41.knew that I was not at my best. As I was building up to a decision, of
:17:42. > :17:50.course we discussed very early on that we are going to participate in
:17:51. > :17:52.the Commonwealth Games. I have never participated in the Commonwealth
:17:53. > :18:00.Games before, this was my first race. As you know, I had been out
:18:01. > :18:11.for a long time without any competition because of the knee
:18:12. > :18:16.injury that I got. Did you fear that you would never get back to your
:18:17. > :18:20.best? Sometimes, when you get this problem with injury, it is scary, it
:18:21. > :18:41.makes you feel like, is it going to heal? Or is it going to take me out
:18:42. > :18:46.of my career? Were you demotivated or maybe depressed at that point?
:18:47. > :18:50.Yes, sometimes, you can imagine when you use to train and run out, and
:18:51. > :19:01.when you just try to go out and do something you feel pain, so you
:19:02. > :19:04.stop. Sometimes it is discouraging. But when you stay with positive
:19:05. > :19:19.people who support you, all that can be in the past. Let's talk about the
:19:20. > :19:23.future. As you know, the holy grail for your distance is a time under
:19:24. > :19:47.one minute and 40 seconds. You are very close, 9100th of a second away.
:19:48. > :19:56.92 I suppose. What are your plans? I have been talking about probably
:19:57. > :20:00.improving my world record. Many have been saying that they see that I
:20:01. > :20:05.have that potential to run under 100 seconds. I must say it is possible,
:20:06. > :20:14.but it is very tough. It is very tough, because to run two laps under
:20:15. > :20:18.50 seconds is not easy. I'm sure it's not. It would be a bit like
:20:19. > :20:22.Roger Bannister all those years ago doing a mile in under four minutes.
:20:23. > :20:30.It is that kind of milestone in athletic. `` in athletics. It would
:20:31. > :20:34.be a moment in athletics history, of course, and you would go down as the
:20:35. > :20:43.man who made the achievement. What do you think about that? I will say
:20:44. > :20:54.that I have not stopped. I am still working on it. If it was not for
:20:55. > :20:57.this injury, I might have tried to do it. Maybe you have the record
:20:58. > :21:00.already? Maybe, you never know. I was thinking of improving from year,
:21:01. > :21:04.and towards 2014. Nevertheless, I think now that my leg is getting
:21:05. > :21:23.better, that is what I will be doing and focusing on before next season.
:21:24. > :21:26.Of course, I would be looking forward to running some very good
:21:27. > :21:33.and fast races. I will be looking maybe to try my world record again.
:21:34. > :21:40.There are plenty of showpiece occasions coming up over the next
:21:41. > :21:44.two years, their? The Rio Olympics in 2016, maybe that is the time and
:21:45. > :21:47.the place to run this sub 140 time. Perhaps. It is a busy three years.
:21:48. > :21:55.Next year, the World Championships, then the 2016 Olympics, then the
:21:56. > :22:14.World Championships again. Three occasions, then. Three, yes. I think
:22:15. > :22:18.it will be also the right time for me to see that I focus in these
:22:19. > :22:22.three years, and probably I think that will be one of my best years to
:22:23. > :22:29.try and see if I can better my record again. Final question. Do you
:22:30. > :22:40.dream of the day? Do you imagine what it's like, might be like? Do
:22:41. > :22:43.you allow yourself to imagine it? Myself, I have been think of maybe
:22:44. > :22:59.bettering my world record to maybe 140.5. Would you do it in stages? I
:23:00. > :23:03.have never really thought that I could do under 140. I try, but I
:23:04. > :23:07.don't want promise. If you promise, it is difficult. If you say, I want
:23:08. > :23:19.to try, then it is also a little bit more fair. A world record is not
:23:20. > :23:27.easy. And it is not something that happens every day. Even if I got the
:23:28. > :23:31.world record, it is still tough for me to break it again. I will just
:23:32. > :23:36.try my best and see if I can get 140.5. That has been my aim. If I
:23:37. > :23:43.get anything better than that, it will be a nice extra. We wish you
:23:44. > :23:46.all the best for that. Everybody watching now would love to see it.
:23:47. > :24:21.Thank you for the interview. Thank you.
:24:22. > :24:22.Big weather contrasts over the UK over the night. Quake a