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Rudisha races to join Australian Athletics Tour
The fastest man over 800m in the world in 2009 will throw down the gauntlet to Australia’s top track athletes this summer when he lines up at the Sydney and Melbourne legs of the Australian Athletics Tour across two fast and furious nights of track and field action.
Twenty-one-year-old Kenyan David Rudisha, the fastest man in 2009 and fourth fastest man of all time over 800m, will contest the 400m at the Sydney Track Classic at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday, February 27 and take on his premier event, the 800m, at the Melbourne Track Classic at Melbourne Olympic Park on Thursday, March 4.
In what could be the race of the domestic
season Rudisha and dual Olympic medallist David
Neville (USA) will go head-to-head with Australia’s best
400m athletes at Sydney Olympic Park as world championships 4x400m
relay bronze medallists Joel Milburn, Ben
Offereins, John Steffensen,
Tristan Thomas and Sean Wroe lead
the one-lap event through a nationwide purple patch.
In Melbourne Rudisha will set an almighty challenge to Beijing
Olympian Lachlan Renshaw and Australia’s top 800m
men in a prelude to the two-lap event at the Commonwealth Games in
New Delhi, India, in October.
Rudisha said the current strength of athletics in Australia made
the domestic series the perfect start to his 2010 campaign in the
all-important lead-up to the Delhi Games.
“In a Commonwealth Games year every race
matters and I want to be racing with the best,” Rudisha said.
“Australia will be a team to watch in New Delhi but I’m the fourth
fastest man of all time over 800m and there’s a reason for
that.”
In 2009 Rudisha was a standout performer on the European circuit,
posting victories over 800m in Ostrava (CZE), Zurich (SUI) and
Brussels (BEL). In Rieti, Italy, in September, Rudisha clocked a
staggering 1:42.01 to add that title to his collection and etch his
name into the history books as the fourth fastest 800m runner of
all time.
The former world junior champion hails from
strong athletics pedigree, his father Daniel a former world-ranked
400m athlete and member of the gold medal-winning 4x400m relay team
at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972.
The reigning World Athletics Final title-holder joins Neville
(400m) and US Olympic and world championships representative
Trevell Quinley (long jump) on the international
guest list for the 2010 Australian summer (further announcements to
follow).
The 2010 Australian Athletics Tour continues this Saturday night
with the Brisbane Athletics Classic before the series heads south
for the Briggs Athletics Classic in Hobart on February 12, the
Sydney Track Classic on February 27 and the Melbourne Track Classic
on March 4.
Sydney Track Classic: Sydney Olympic Park – Saturday, February 27
Melbourne Track Classic: Melbourne Olympic Park – Thursday, March 4
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