New 800m World Record

It disgusts me that over such a premiere event, I wonder how many people on here realised that yesterday one of the greatest runs I've seen and a demonstration of lone running by Kenyon David Rudisha posting 1:41:09 at the age of 21. The time wasn't posted in any of the red tops that I can see... The Daily Mail gave it a 2 sentance slot about 10 pages from the back page... image

 

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/SPORT/08/22/athletics.rudisha.800m/t1larg.rudisha.jpg


Click For Video

Cheers Pug image

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Comments

  • Unfortunately the general public are mostly interested in overpaid prima-donnas kicking a leather ball around.  That's why great athletic achievements are largely ignored along with cycling, triathlon and numerous other sports.
  • Wow - incredible running.  That's faster than most our sprints.

    It would get more coverage here if it were a Brit which is understandable.

    Have to say though I'm not an avid follower of athletics.  Don't see why you would be surprised that many here aren't either, just because we run.  Just as in the same way that I drive a car but have no interesting in mechanical engineering, watch TV but no interest in electronics and wear clothes but have no interest in tailoring.

  • It's very sad and it wasn't always like this.30 or so years ago Ovett,Coe,Cram,Foster etc were every bit as high-profile as any star footballer and it wasn't just British athletes either.Most general sports fans knew about  athletes like John Walker,Laase Viren,Yifter etc.

    Regarding Rudisha,I've seen the race on Youtube and it is a fantastic run.He actually looks very smooth and comfortable and I think he'll go even quicker-sub 1.41 ?

    It also again emphasises what an outstanding middle distance athlete Seb Coe was:29 years on and still only 2 men have run faster.

  • Just RunJust Run ✭✭✭

    Its not the general public ignoring these sports, they just don't generate income for the broadcasters so they choose to ignore them. Although, i think you will find cycling gets its fair share of coverage on terestrial tv these days!!! As BDB says, if it was a brit it would have been far more widely received here. I also think athletics get more than its fair share of coverage, and unless you PAY those BA$%^&DS at Sky you don't get to watch much football either!!!

    Anyway, great running and thanks for the link...

  • Fantastic WR by Rushida. I knew, I'm a bit of an athletics fan, however the general public and sporting press seem to be obsessed by football. Now I like football, but the coverage in teh media is way over the top.

     Cheers Pug for link, Much appreciated. We were in the Berlin Olympic Stadium last month. Cracking stadoum too.

  • Awesome run. he barely looked out of breath at the finish image

    DavidJones; Agree with your comment re high profile of Coe, Ovett et al 30 years ago and also how Rushida looked comfortable.

  • Badly Drawn Bloke wrote (see)

    Have to say though I'm not an avid follower of athletics.  Don't see why you would be surprised that many here aren't either, just because we run.  Just as in the same way that I drive a car but have no interesting in mechanical engineering, watch TV but no interest in electronics and wear clothes but have no interest in tailoring.


    Quite a strange analogy there? image Driving a car and being a mechanic isn't the same, we drive a car because we have to, we don't need to know how it works, we just need to get to place of work etc, we watch TV for information and enjoyment, we'd not need to know how it works? and we wear clothes to not get arrested image

    Anyone on this forum runs/trains or does athletics surely? Infact if you don't then why are you on the this forum? Therefore, surely it'd follow that anyone who runs would like to see a world record in athletics? maybe I'm missing the point, but it's not being an avid follower of athletics, but a world record in one of the premiere running events in the world, surely people on this forum would be interested and the fact is, I heard by accident... and I follow athletics. Maybe I'm being old fashioned.

    Anyway, I'm being argumentative, my point was that someone is the FASTEST ANYONE has ever been at an event... and this doesn't even warrent a front page... instead we get "Peter Crouchs Missus Is Pregnant". No wonder athletics is falling apart... lol and we wonder why everyone turning into a fat lard bucket. Just shag a footballer and it's front page, train 4 hours per day and you're a mention on a forum somehwhere in the world.

    Cheers Pug image

    P.S Sorry for rant, not having a go at anyone, just annoys me that hard working people get no publicity and big brother contestants are treated like gods.

  • There's a good article on Rushida on the Athletics Weekly online site.

  • But that is what this country is all about. If it was a British athlete who got the world record.
    The media will make attention of it. Mo Farah double gold recently created headlines.
    But any other country wouldn't bother to print that.

    Athletics is still popular but it lacks media exposure and role models.
    Newspapers will never be interested unless there are British winning athletes.
    So they will concentrate in doughnut-brain reality so-called celebrities and
    overpaid footballers.

  • I bet if David Rudisha had an attractive Popstar girlfriend he would get in the papers etc.

    I hear Cheryl Cole is single these days David…image

  • I think my  analogy stands - I run to keep fit, keep my weight down etc.  Not to be part of athletics in general.  This forum is for runners, not solely track athletes.  Yes some are interested, many aren't.  Which is a shame, true.

    I agree that I'd rather know about people with talent, be they sports persons, musicians, artist, actors etc rather than dead beat shouty  types who appeared on TV once.  But such is the media.

  • Pugheaven™ wrote (see)

    Anyone on this forum runs/trains or does athletics surely? Infact if you don't then why are you on the this forum? Therefore, surely it'd follow that anyone who runs would like to see a world record in athletics?

    I think BDB's analogy is pretty spot on.  I run. So what.  It doesn't naturally follow that I should have the remotest interest in watching athletics on TV, knowing who holds which record etc.
  • I agree with BDB. I run as a method to control my stress and to feel good about myself, I have no interest in athletics at all and my training schedule is usually pretty random as it is more important for me to enjoy running than to be compeditive.
    Im on this forum for enjoyment also. I like hearing about people who do something positive for themselves such as loose weight, give up the booze or smoking.. People who understand the journey I continue to go through to improve my life.

    I have no interest at all in watching anybody run no matter who they are, I would simply rather be doing it myself.

    Quite possibly the only running I have ever made an effort to watch is the new weetabix advert with the fun runners in costumes winning a marathon as that makes me smile image

  • Hi All,

        Fair enough, maybe my assumptions judging by peoples repsonses are incorrect which I'll hold my hand up... I just assumed that the majority on here if runners themselves would be interested in running and athletics... obviously this isn't the case...

    Infact, this could make a good POLL for RW... "how many people run but aren't actually interested in athletics and wouldn't watch it?"

    Then maybe some analysis on WHY? I'd be interested to know this, why people have turned away, drugs cheats? No stars anymore? What is it that's leaving Athletics stadiums empty now and people turning away from the sport over recent years? which then leads to none coverage of world records in papers or TV? There MUST be a reason... did the decline start with Ben Johnson... as I think the timing is right... did everyone just say "I'm not interested, they're all cheats?"

    Cheers Pug image

  • Back in teh late 70s and early 80s footballw as blighted with hooliganism. Athletics was on the up then and we had 'The golden era 'of Coe, Ovett, Cram, Daley T,Allan Wells et al.

    Amazing that we'd only 3, then 4 channels and athletics was on for 2 hours, after ITV won the domestic athletics TV contact from early 1985 !

  • It's an interesting question Pug.  Maybe the decline was a few years later when the satellites went up or the Iron Curtain came down.  Drug scandals probably don't help yet millions tune into every week to watch a load of cheating fools kick a ball about.

    2012 may help but I suspect that people will watch for the 2 weeks it's on then go back to their favoured sport.  It's a competitive market and unfortunately, the bloated Premier League has it sewn up.

  •  Pugheaven™ wrote (see)

    Infact, this could make a good POLL for RW... "how many people run but aren't actually interested in athletics and wouldn't watch it?
    It would be interesting data at the very least, as would finding out what sports if any people are into.. Personaly speaking im a avid motorsport fan and can't stand soccer, rugby or anything else
  • Maybe they didn't turn away, but were never interested in the first place?  I'm happy to do running as a hobby, but don't have the remotest interest in watching or knowing about other people who have the same hobby... even those who are really good at it, or do it as a job.

    This seems entirely reasonable to me!

  • popsiderpopsider ✭✭✭

    I have a passing interest in athletics - I enjoy the Olympics and I'll watch any big city marathons that are on if I'm in but I wouldn't record them or make a point of watching them.   I had no idea there was a new 800m record til I read it here and being honest I've never heard of the guy.   That's part of the problem isn't it - apart from an odd few like Bolt the athletes are no longer household names - to the casual sports watcher it's just person A running against person B - there is no history or personality behind the names because the coverage of previous competition hasn't been there.   

    I don't really see the running I do as being part of the sport of athletics - the grass roots of athletics seems to me to be more the track clubs rather than the kind of running clubs the majority on here probably belong to if they belong to any club.  

    As for what sports people watch - the only sport I'd make a point of watching now is road cycling and football matches involving Derby or possibly big England games in the World Cup or Euros.     Athletics, darts, track cycling and other football are stuff I'd watch if I was in and had nothing else to do/watch but I'm not really fussed about them.

  • Excellent summary Popsider.

    I've always been interested in athletics and still am,but I realise I'm in a minority.I mentioned David Rudisha's new world record to my colleagues at work this week and no-one else had even heard of him,including 3 guys who run regularly.

    I became an athletics fan back in the '70's,when it was very different.I started running then because it was a "cool" sport to do and like many of my schoolmates,I wanted to be the next Bedford or Ovett,who I used to watch regularly on TV and followed in the papers etc.

    Hard to see how it can change.Like many others have mentioned,football totally dominates the sports media to such an extent these days that only a British Usain Bolt is likely to recapture the wider public's imagination.

    As well as athletics,the only other sport I follow nowadays is Rugby Union,but I love the Tour de France and the other big cycling tours and there may be a lesson there for athletics.The evening highlights programmes on ITV 4 are excellent;much,much better and more involving than the BBC's coverage of the major athletics championships.

  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭

    I think the main problem with athletics (the running side of it) is that performance is 99% fitness and 1% technique, whereas most popular spectator sports are more skill-orientated, and therefore just more of an interesting spectacle.  So for the average punter, whether they personally take part in a sport or not it's easier to admire the sheer skill of Messi as he weaves through 5 defenders, compared with some middle distance runner who just happens to get to the finish line a few yards before anyone else.  (But I grant you, Rushida's running is a joy to watch!)

    So maybe there's a limit to how much athletics can learn from other sports coverage.  I agree that ITV4's coverage of the Tour was excellent.  (I signed up for BT Vision largely so that I could record it every day.)  But then cycling is a very visually stunning sport.  If by some miracle I manage to get any tickets for the Olympics, I'd much rather be in the velodrome than the athletics stadium.

  • Cracking run of 1:43.51 by Rushida in winning in Brussels. Looked well in control and some kick over last 100m or so.
  • It will be great to see him go head-to-head with Kaki in a race paced to say,400metres.

    They could push each other all the way and who knows,even get close to 1.40.

  • MoraghanMoraghan ✭✭✭

    Good run by Rudisha.

    Semenya's run was interesting.  She just didn't try at any point.  It's a travesty that she has been hounded into not putting her best foot forward.

  • A big problem is that the average forumite barely recognises running as a sport, nevermind follows athletics.
    If even people at least somewhat involved couldn't care less, you're really wasting perfectly good oxigen venting over the red tops not reporting a Kenian running very, very fast. How do you expect them to find that front page worthy?

    David Jones, a paced 800m race, how come nobody ever though of that before?
    How long ago is it that you've seen a top tier pro 800m race?
    It's often argued that there are too many rabbited races in the pro circuit and athletes sometimes lack the tactical skill needed at big championships where nobody is paid to keep the pace up during the first lap.
    It is however true that the big stars sometimes avoid each other all season instead of just having a go at each other every few weeks.

    Semenya: that messy situation is never going to clear up, isn't it? I suspect she might insist at some point on going entirely public with whatever came out of the investigation. Transparency is the only thing that might help now...

  • ...and now he's done it again...down to 1:41.01....

    ...and dragged Michael Rimmer round to a nice PB as well..

  • Good old Rieti - great meeting.

    Shame no-one's arsed on here apart from a few of us image

  • Wow great new WR and good to see Rimmer run sub 1:44.
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