David Rudisha - World Record Holder & Olympic Champion, 800m extratime

overlooked to meet targets. Now on BBC News, extratime.

We have come to Birmingham today to meet an athlete who rivals Usain

Bolt in terms of fame and achievement, but there the

comparison ends. He isn't a sprinter but a middle`distance runner who won

Olympic gold at the London Games two years ago and broke his own record

in the 800 metres final. What motivates David Rudisha and what are

his plans for the future? We are about to find out.

David Rudisha, a very warm welcome to this edition of extratime.

I want to throw you a quote from Lord Coe, himself a legendary

middle`distance runner. He said your world record win in the 800 metres

at the London Olympics came from consummate physical and mental

confidence. Is that you, a man with consummate mental and physical

confidence? Well, actually, I must say that that race was special. Even

myself I watch it on YouTube from time to time and I even ask myself,

is it David Rudisha? If I must say, I started really preparing a long,

long time before the 2012 Olympics. I remember even back in 2006, our

coach was advising us and telling us, where will you be in 2012? So,

that was something that stayed in my mind and it was always crossing my

mind that one time I would get there in good health and good shape. I

found everything was just perfect for the night. And it was not just

myself, because I saw in that race everybody did something special.

Either national records or personal bests or indeed your own world

record. Absolutely. I think I'm right in saying that all eight of

them, the finalists, would have actually won a gold medal at the

previous Olympics in Beijing. Yes. An extraordinary race. One

commentator in the Guardian newspaper in the UK described the

race as being led by you in a speedboat, with seven other

waterskiers behind. You pulled everybody through with that

extraordinary pace that you managed. Not just on the second lap, but on

the first as well. It's an interesting image. Yes. That race, I

was really determined. From the history of our family, my father was

a silver`medallist at the Olympics in 1968 in Mexico. Your father

Daniel, yes. Yes. I didn't want to take any chances in that race and

because I had that confidence, I knew I was better in that race and I

was in good shape, I wanted to take it in a special way and just lead

from the front and push, try to see if I can even go and break the

Olympic championship record, which was 142.5. In the long run,

something special came out. Take us to the start line and how you felt

on the start line, looking around you at all these other athletes.

Actually, you know, sometimes when you are there at that moment, in the

Olympics, what comes first in your mind is this is the Olympics and

this is going to take four years before it comes again and this is

the final. You are more like, this is championships, it's a tactical

race and anything can happen. On the other hand, sometimes you just feel

like, I don't want to make enemies here. So, what I was thinking was

just to be on the safe side right from the beginning and that is just

to be at the front, because that has been my running tactic and my

running way since 2009. Normally when I'm at the front, sometimes I

am out of the traffic. So I can control the race. Because I knew I

was going to hit it hard. I knew as soon as I get into the front then I

was going to control the race. But the most important thing, I was also

trying to do the calculation and everything and of course the pacing

to see how I would cross the first 200, the 400, which is the most

important thing, then push down to 200 and try to finish strong in the

last 200. I was thinking a lot in that race. I'm going to quote Lord

Coe again now because he talks about the third 200 metres, between 400

and 600,as a kind of killing zone, where the body is really struggling

to gather oxygen. But it's the most effective and most painful part of

the race. Does that resonate with you? Do you understand what he means

when he talks of the killing zone? Well, to be honest, normally when I

hear the bell it changes everything and I feel like, wow, we have now

gone past the middle. How far ahead were you on the bell? I was just a

metre. Something like one metre. Then going down to 600, I pushed and

I was about four or three metres, something like that. Normally that's

where I normally push, right from the bell to 200 and then try to

maintain that pace. At what point did you know the race was won? When

I was coming down to 300 bend, wow, I saw these guys were strong. After

the bell, I tried to push hard to 600. Then when I looked at the

screen in front of me, I thought I put in a very big gap behind. Then

when I saw the screen, I saw this guy was just a few metres. Then

inside I said, this is a championship race, I have to make

sure that I have something left in the last 50, in case these guys come

and attack. So I didn't know exactly what that pace was but what really

clicked in my mind, I was worried about these guys, they were not far,

just to realise they were also running fast and everybody was

clear of all of the bumping and clear of all of the bumping and

barging that often goes on in an 800 metres race because you led from the

front. This is a predictable question but I'll ask it

nevertheless. When you crossed the line, you are an Olympic champion

and then a few moments later you look at that time, 140.91, and

you're a new recordholder. `` one minute 40.91. How can anybody absorb

something like that? It is so enormous, isn't it? Yeah. Let me say

that I knew I was going for a very fast time. In my mind, going into

the Olympic final, I was trying 1.41 on my own, which nobody has ever

done without the help of a pacemaker. As I was pushing that

race, I knew it was 1.41 quality. When I crossed the line, I crossed

fast. That was the most important thing to me. The gold medal was more

important than the world record? Yes. To win the gold medal was the

most important thing for me. I was pushing to make sure that these

guys, I destroy them and they don't get near me. So, crossing that line,

first I was happy to win the gold medal. And then when I look at the

clock, I was actually looking for if I have got the championships record.

Just to see WR, world record, I didn't even see the time clearly, I

started celebrating. It was such a great moment. I felt so happy

because it's something that is unbelievable, to do something like

that in an Olympics. The 800 metres, such an unbelievable race. You used

the word "destroy" just now. I'm thinking now of a quote from the 400

metres hurdle legend, Ed Moses, who said that during his whole career he

felt like a gladiator. You don't have to have a sword but you go out

with the same mentality. You are very softly spoken, gentle looking

man, but inside you there has to be a ruthlessness? Well, yes, I must

say that I usually like my compatriots, the guys we are running

with. Normally, even during the competition, in this Diamond League

and even in the championships, some of them come and ask me, "What pace

are you going today?" Sometimes I don't hide them. I tell them, today

we're going for a fast race. Today I want to do 1.43, 1.42. They just nod

their heads. So you play a bit of psychology on them? Not really

because most of the targets, I have always been meeting them. Even when

I was going for the world record, I think the first

time I didn't speak to the media. I only spoke to my coach and manager

and we said, I don't even want to talk to the media because if I talk

to the media and I don't make it then I might get disappointed. But I

just want to try because I feel like it's there. Let me take you back to

your childhood. What was life like for you as a young boy in Kenya? I

grew up like any other child in a village in Masai. Our main job and

our work as young people is to help our parents in looking after our

hut, our cows. That's what we used to do before school. When did you

first discover that you had a particular talent as a runner? At

that time, when I was young, I knew my father was an Olympic athlete. He

was the only person in our region, we don't have many Masai running. So

I was always proud to try to be the best. Your father encouraged you?

Yes. I was trying to be the best in the group but sometimes it was

difficult because we didn't have any training and some in the group were

better than me at that time. Even now, if I meet them, they always

tell me, do you remember we used to beat you? But you're not a bad

loser, are you? I don't sense you're a bad loser. Of course, we just have

fun. But I tell them, "Try now. That was then, try now". You've moved on

a bit. Tell me a bit about the priest who

came to Kenya and brought you up and brought you to the UK. He played a

very big part in my career. I knew him back in 2004, that was the first

time I saw him, the first time I came near him. `` but I didn't come

near him. At that time, I was running for the primary

championships at a provisional level, then it happened that we came

to Britain and we were staying in St Patrick's high school. In the

morning, I saw the white man walking, he always went for a walk

in the morning. When I saw him, I was shy, I couldn't get near him. I

asked the guys in the school, how does he select his athletes to join

his programme? They say, if you do well in competition, sometimes he

will see you and he can go scouting and see some of the potential, then

bring them into his camp. The extraordinary thing about brother

Colm Eassie has no particular professional experience. He has made

these athletes out of nothing in particular. What is his particular

talent? I think it is the passion. The passion that he has in

athletics. It is also more like he has a lot of experience, especially

in bringing up the junior and the youth athletes. That is his main

programme, actually, because that is what he does. Training and coaching

young kids, who were under the age of 20, and since then, that is when

I learned a lot of things. Back in the village, I didn't have the

coaching, and I was just doing random training, running on the

hills, just going for something like 20 minutes at high speed. You didn't

know what you are doing, effectively. So he pulled it all

together, and they understand that the philosophy at St Patrick's is

about hard work and dedication. You are talented and ambitious, but in

the end it is hard work that takes you to a gold medal. Yes. Even in

that camp, we have seen very talented guys, because we'll come

there. But not all of us make it to a senior level or to a professional

level. Some of them are very talented, but they end up becoming

lazy, or they don't follow the instructions they are being given.

And they end up just destroying their career like that. We talked at

length about your Olympic triumph in London two years ago. You were in

Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games, following a long layoff from a knee

injury. In the end, you didn't win gold at the Commonwealth, you won

silver. How did you take that defeat? Actually, let me say that I

knew that I was not at my best. As I was building up to a decision, of

course we discussed very early on that we are going to participate in

the Commonwealth Games. I have never participated in the Commonwealth

Games before, this was my first race. As you know, I had been out

for a long time without any competition because of the knee

injury that I got. Did you fear that you would never get back to your

best? Sometimes, when you get this problem with injury, it is scary, it

makes you feel like, is it going to heal? Or is it going to take me out

of my career? Were you demotivated or maybe depressed at that point?

Yes, sometimes, you can imagine when you use to train and run out, and

when you just try to go out and do something you feel pain, so you

stop. Sometimes it is discouraging. But when you stay with positive

people who support you, all that can be in the past. Let's talk about the

future. As you know, the holy grail for your distance is a time under

one minute and 40 seconds. You are very close, 9100th of a second away.

92 I suppose. What are your plans? I have been talking about probably

improving my world record. Many have been saying that they see that I

have that potential to run under 100 seconds. I must say it is possible,

but it is very tough. It is very tough, because to run two laps under

50 seconds is not easy. I'm sure it's not. It would be a bit like

Roger Bannister all those years ago doing a mile in under four minutes.

It is that kind of milestone in athletic. `` in athletics. It would

be a moment in athletics history, of course, and you would go down as the

man who made the achievement. What do you think about that? I will say

that I have not stopped. I am still working on it. If it was not for

this injury, I might have tried to do it. Maybe you have the record

already? Maybe, you never know. I was thinking of improving from year,

and towards 2014. Nevertheless, I think now that my leg is getting

better, that is what I will be doing and focusing on before next season.

Of course, I would be looking forward to running some very good

and fast races. I will be looking maybe to try my world record again.

There are plenty of showpiece occasions coming up over the next

two years, their? The Rio Olympics in 2016, maybe that is the time and

the place to run this sub 140 time. Perhaps. It is a busy three years.

Next year, the World Championships, then the 2016 Olympics, then the

World Championships again. Three occasions, then. Three, yes. I think

it will be also the right time for me to see that I focus in these

three years, and probably I think that will be one of my best years to

try and see if I can better my record again. Final question. Do you

dream of the day? Do you imagine what it's like, might be like? Do

you allow yourself to imagine it? Myself, I have been think of maybe

bettering my world record to maybe 140.5. Would you do it in stages? I

have never really thought that I could do under 140. I try, but I

don't want promise. If you promise, it is difficult. If you say, I want

to try, then it is also a little bit more fair. A world record is not

easy. And it is not something that happens every day. Even if I got the

world record, it is still tough for me to break it again. I will just

try my best and see if I can get 140.5. That has been my aim. If I

get anything better than that, it will be a nice extra. We wish you

all the best for that. Everybody watching now would love to see it.

Thank you for the interview. Thank you.

Big weather contrasts over the UK over the night. Quake a