“If you want to die, follow me” — The 2012 Olympic 800m Final
This was originally posted on /r/Running during the first Covid-19 lockdown in April 2020.
There’s no racing going on at the moment, and after listening to Nick Symmonds on the Letsrun podcast (very worth a listen) I was reminded of the story surrounding the 2012 London Olympic 800m final. Whilst many may know what happened over those 800m’s in London I still think it’s worth a look back. If you’re not interested in reading my ramblings below, the tl;dr is that David Rudisha of Kenya won the race, and set a new world record of 1:40.91, with the race being voted the IAAF race of the decade earlier this year. But there’s far more to this race than the one sentence summary, so lets dig in!
Championship finals generally are not fast races, for a number of reasons:
* Usually no rabbits for the field, these are competitors that are paid to run a certain distance at a set pace before dropping out, for example at the London Marathon there will usually be a few pacers assigned to hit certain times through distances like the half-marathon mark. Here’s a really interesting piece about a pro-rabbit!
* Hightened competition and deeper fields make runners more wary of becoming a rabbit themselves for their competitors. One of the talking points going in to what should have been this summers Olympics was surrounding the mens 10000m, where Joshua Cheptegei and Rhonex Kipruto are on paper head-and-shoulders faster than anyone else that could line up, but in an Olympic final faster runners usually do not go out and run a time-trial and ignore the rest of the field, for fear that their competitors just sit on their heels for 9900m and outkick them in the home straight. Whilst Rudisha was able to pull off this tactic, 7 of 8 runners in the field achieved PBs in no small part to Rudisha setting the pace up front.
* Most runners will have run a heat-race, or another distance, or be more focussed on another distance later in the Olympics. In 2012 Rudisha had run in round 1 on Monday 6th August, the semi-final on Tuesday 7th August, and the final was held on Thursday 9th August. Whilst an Olympian is fully able to handle this sort of workload and prepares for years to do so, to be able to run a world record with 2 races in his legs already adds to the legendary status of this achievement.
So the cards are already somewhat stacked against Rudisha, but lets add in an extra element — he called his shot before the race started — sort of.
Unfortunately I’ve not been able to find the press conference itself, so I’m relying on the aformentioned Letsrun podcast with Nick Symmonds (who finished 5th in the race, more on that in a moment) for this information. In discussing his own tactics going in to this final, Symmonds mentioned that in a press conference after the semi-final Rudisha had hinted at going for the world record, and when asked if he thought that was possible Symmonds responded that the chances were slim, for the three reasons listed above. Rudisha also told his Kenyan teammate Timothy Kitum about his plan:
In the call room before the race he told us he was going to cross [at 400m] in 49.2. He said to us young guys, ‘If you want to die, follow me. If not, then stay back.
So whilst not quite on the level of Babe Ruth calling his shot, Rudisha did give his competitors an insight into his plan, which Symmonds went on to clarify on the podcast — stating his own plan was to run his own race, aim for a + 2–3 second split and mop up anyone foolish enough to go with Rudisha in the home straight. His plan also suceeded, running a big PB of over a second, but sadly left him just short of the medal positions in 5th.
To the race itself. Rudisha started off in lane 4, and instantly went out at a fast pace where a normal championship final would see all the players jockying for position, no one wanting to take the lead and break wind for the others. The commentators already knew the pace was fast at 200m, and as planned, Rudisha came through 400m in 49.28 in the lead, striding out ahead of a very strung out field. Down the back straight on lap 2 Rudisha powers further in front looking fully in control, whilst the runners in 2nd, 3rd and 4th look like they’re on the brink of complete failure. Rounding the last turn and into the final 100m and a bus could be parked between Rudisha and the rest of the field.
Once over the line Rudisha is composed and continues further on to take in a lap of honour, whilst other runners are struggling to stay standing. Nijel Amos, the silver medalist is taken off the track on a stretcher.
It sounds stupid to write, but an 800m race doesn’t last all that long, and yet watching the 2012 final a few times over and you can still feel the excitement building and building with every step as the field rounds the track. By the time Rudisha crosses the line it not only feels so incredibly quick, but also longer in a way because of the building crescendo of anticipation at what just happened, in a way that shorter track and field events never achieve, either over in an instant or over longer distances with a long slow build to a few moments of decisiveness. And there’s certainly something mesmirising about watching someone who had a wholly ambitious plan that would birth a legend, which at least some of his competition knew was coming, still able to go out and anihilate his competitors so convincingly.
