David Rudisha 45.5 400m. Making the 400/800 man stylish again.

Rudisha was originaaly a 400M specialist and it is only Bro O'connel( the famous Irish priest and coach in St patrick's ,Iten Kenya) who persuaded him to have a go at the 800M.Therefore a 45 sec in the 400 for Rudisha is not a big deal.The big deal is whether he has the enduarance to sustain the 400m leg speed in an 800M race especially when it is tactical and has the likes of Kaki,lali etc in the race.

not a big deal wrote:

Rudisha was originaaly a 400M specialist and it is only Bro O'connel( the famous Irish priest and coach in St patrick's ,Iten Kenya) who persuaded him to have a go at the 800M.Therefore a 45 sec in the 400 for Rudisha is not a big deal.The big deal is whether he has the enduarance to sustain the 400m leg speed in an 800M race especially when it is tactical and has the likes of Kaki,lali etc in the race.

Originally a 400m specialist who did what? Under who? He was never a 400 meter specialist, that's quite an exaggeration. He may have run the 400 meters in some slow times before getting older and becoming a star in the 800, but that is not even relevant, and hardly makes him a "specialist". He has never touched a 45 in his life before becoming an 800 runner. He was an 800 runner all along who found his way, not a true 400 guy who was convinced to run the 800.

Those guys should be the one worried about him. He's improved year after year now, and any more improvement will make him one of the best of all time going under 1:42 to join all the other drugies.

Although i do agree it's not a big deal for different reasons...he's run 1:42.01, i expect that kind of speed.

not a big deal wrote:

Rudisha was originaaly a 400M specialist and it is only Bro O'connel( the famous Irish priest and coach in St patrick's ,Iten Kenya) who persuaded him to have a go at the 800M.Therefore a 45 sec in the 400 for Rudisha is not a big deal.The big deal is whether he has the enduarance to sustain the 400m leg speed in an 800M race especially when it is tactical and has the likes of Kaki,lali etc in the race.

You do know he has ran 1:42.

I know early in his career he was a decathlete. He might dabbled in the 400 before but his official pr before this race was 48.

Wow! Kind of early in the training cycle to be this fast.

What the heck is going to happen this summer? 44-mid when he's sharp? What will that translate to in the 800? Yikes.

He ran 46.2A back in 2007 (18 years old). I suggest you all brush up on your stats. He was also he anchor on their WJ 4x4 team that year, so he has a long 400m back ground, but was also running 1:44 at that stage. His Dad wasn't bad either (46.19 back in 1966). After seeing him run 46.5 last week end, you knew he was ready to run well under 46 in a top field. He should run under 1:44 on Thursday night in Melb.

I sure hope that he pulls young Gregson to a pb 800m in Melbourne.

So I got bored today and looked at 400 PRs of other guys with comparable 800 PRs to Rudisha. I didn't look too deeply, just at IAAF profiles, but the only other guys with something close to Rudisha's 45.5/1:42 profile are Yeimer Lopez of Cuba 45.11/1:43.07 and Billy Konchellach with 45.38/1:43.06 and Borzakovskiy with 45.84/1:42.47. From what I can tell, the only guys faster than Rudisha in the 800 (Kipketer, Coe, Cruz) did not have faster 400 speed than Rudisha, and his combo of 400/800 performance is unmatched by any other runner to my knowledge. Now maybe some other 1:42 800 guys ran faster than 45.5 unofficially, but from what I can tell, nobody else has.

You could also interpret this the other way and say that he is running too fast and not focusing enough on endurance. This could be true. The other 800 greats never ran with that kind of speed. But to me, you have to be impressed that a guy who focuses on the 800 ran a 45.5 400 in February, when his top training is probably months in the future.

vivalarepublica wrote:

You could also interpret this the other way and say that he is running too fast and not focusing enough on endurance. This could be true.

He trains with Augustine Choge and Isaac Songok.

Here's a high-quality video of that 1:42.01 Rudisha ran in Rieti last year. His imposing size compared to the other runners reminds me of how Bolt dwarfs over all competitors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIsJOUAvG_A&feature=related

Juat had to call him a cracker, didn,t ya? Congratulations, you're a bigot. But then, you knew that.

ciego no más wrote:

vivalarepublica wrote:

You could also interpret this the other way and say that he is running too fast and not focusing enough on endurance. This could be true.

He trains with Augustine Choge and Isaac Songok.

And so far this season has not run anything in training faster than 24 seconds. I guess we call that natural talent to come out and run such an impressive 400.....

... and his combo of 400/800 performance is unmatched by any other runner to my knowledge.

Any rational 400/800 discussion must include El Caballo. Per the IAAF scoring tables:

Juantorena:

44.26 (non-altitude WR) = 1229

1:43.50 (WR) = 1216

total = 2445

Rudisha:

45.50 = 1149

1:42.01 = 1262

total = 2411

Habanos S.A. wrote:

... and his combo of 400/800 performance is unmatched by any other runner to my knowledge.

Any rational 400/800 discussion must include El Caballo. Per the IAAF scoring tables:

Juantorena:

44.26 (non-altitude WR) = 1229

1:43.50 (WR) = 1216

total = 2445

Rudisha:

45.50 = 1149

1:42.01 = 1262

total = 2411

Juantorena's 800 PR was 1:43.44 in 1977.

I stand corrected. Give The Horse two more points.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

David Rudisha - Next Super Star ?

Posted by Conway Hill

This past weekend was a very busy one, with lots of selection meets for the upcoming World Indoor Championships. But as I was scanning the results there was one result that stood out to me from the others - from an outdoor meet in Sydney Australia.

In the men's 400 in Sydney the results were actually quite outstanding for this time of year. The winner in a world leading time of 44.86 was Australian Ben Offereins, but what I found exciting was the third place finisher, Kenyan half miler David Rudisha in a very nice 45.50!

Now 45.50 is a very "good" time for the quarter but not quite in the 44 second realm that one would expect for the world's most elite quarter milers. But if you're not a quarter miler by trade it can be quite exciting. For example, if you're a short sprinter like Tyson Gay who ran 45.57 last spring it could signal increased strength and speed endurance. Which is exactly what we saw from Tyson last year as he began the year with a 19.58 200 in May then closed out his season with sprints of 9.71 and 9.69!

Being a half miler by trade, however, for Rudisha it shows just the opposite - a blazing turn of speed! Quite exciting given that Rudisha just moved to the #4 all time position in the 800 last year with his 1:42.01 run in Rieti.

Now, just how fast is fast for a half miler? Well there have been a handful that have been able to cover the distance faster than 45 seconds and run under 1:44 for 800 meters. Those that immediately come to mind are Alberto Juantorena who won Olympic gold over 400 meters at 44.26 and was able to parlay his speed into 1:43.44 for 800. Mark Everett who ran 44.59 and 1:43.20. And James Robinson, who regularly ran 44 second splits on the 4x4 and had a PR of 1:43.92 in the 800 meters.

But if we take a look at the three men ahead of Rudisha on the all time 800 list 45.50 is blazing! Joaquin Cruz, #3 at 1:41.77 had no official marks for 400 meters, running only the longer 1500/mile. Sebastian Coe, #2 all time at 1:41.73, ran 46.87 for 400. And record holder Wilson Kipketer (1:41.11) had a best of 46.85 over 400 meters. Which puts Rudisha over a full second faster over 400 than the best ever 800 meter runners. Now you know why this leaves me drooling - we may finally see someone approach Kipketer's long standing world record!

With their 400 meter speed, Coe and Kipketer were able to take comfortably run blistering first laps of 49/48 seconds on occasion. Rudisha should be able to do the same. At the same time, it shows that he has the leg speed to unleash a withering second lap kick if the pace become too dawdling.

Either way, the prospects for fast times look very bright for Rudisha. I am dying to see how his season goes this year. At only 21 years of age, already one of the best ever, and with a very competitive nature he could become one of those athletes that stands above the crowd and becomes a super star in this sport.

recession wrote:For example, if you're a short sprinter like Tyson Gay who ran 45.57 last spring it could signal increased strength and speed endurance. Which is exactly what we saw from Tyson last year as he began the year with a 19.58 200 in May then closed out his season with sprints of 9.71 and 9.69!

that 400 may signal nothing

any 10.0/20.0 guy shoud be able to run <46 just off their 100/200 training with no specific work done for 400 at all

<45 & you are more in realms of specific 400 training

similarly kip,coe & joaquim's 400 times are misleading - they didn't run any 400s against top quality when those pbs were set ( rudy was in a 44.8 race ) - i's bet good money they wouda also gone <46 if in this quality of race

at present, i'm sceptical if rudy has anything more than fractional better 400 speed than those guys ( the kip that split 48.5 on the way to 1'41.2wr had to be in 45-flat or better shape in order to have enough reserve for the 2nd lap after that suicidal opening )

Oh my, ventolin, your post makes sense. I am in complete agreement, especially your point regarding the potential 400 speed of the 3 sub 1:42 men. They all could run 45xx in an open 400 at their best.

kip, i'd suggest wouda been more like mid-44s

his 1'41.2wr ( zurich ) off 48.5/52.7 -> even-pace of 1'40.2

in comparison, coe's 1'41.7wr off 49.5/52.2 ->1'41.3

we know coe musta been a 45+ guy around then & obviously had far better over-distance endurance than kip

therefore, for kip to produce an 800m which was intrinsically >1s better, means he musta been helluva lot faster than 45+

if he'd run a few 400s in that zurich form, he'd almost certainly have got into mid-44s

this makes rudy's goal so much harder : even if he breaks the wr with perfect wabbiting, he won't be intrinsically better than kip until he does actually run 1'40-flat !!!