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After 40 Years Uganda gained its second gold medal in the 2012 London Olympic Games. Below is the story of the men who gained gold for there country.

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John Akii-Bua (Video/Documentary): The First man to break 48 seconds in 400 Hurdles

(Aug 16) I saw this link to this brilliant Documentary from a friend who shared it. It tells the tragic-story of an olympic icon John Akii-Bua the first man to break 48 seconds in the 400 Hurdles and Uganda’s first olympic gold medalist (only recently did Uganda gain its second gold this olympics in the Mens Marathon).

Akii-Bua courage inspired future stars such as Edwin Moses (1976-1984) Olympic Champion. Without giving away too much of the video I will give some background Akii-Bua was from Uganda, we look back at the late 60s and early 70s when he partnered with a young upcoming English coach named Malcolm Arnold.

Towards the end of his career Uganda was taken over by Genocidal (mass killings) crazed Dictator Idi Amin. Akii Bua died in 1993 the circumstances are still not known.

Malcolm Arnold is still active in British Athletics coaching and went on to train Colin Jackson, Craig Pickering and Dai Greene among others, but to date his first student his still his greatest.

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Kiprotich takes Marathon Gold in London 2012

Uganda’s Stephen Kiprotich celebrates with his national flag as he approaches the finish line to win men’s marathon at London 2012 Olympic Games

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(Aug 12) The Mens Marathon signalled the end of the Track and Field at the 2012 London Games.

Uganda’s Stephen Kiprotich became the country’s second ever Olympic gold winner on Sunday when he took the lead in the men’s marathon, beating Kenyan rival Abel Kirui to the finish line by just under 30 seconds.

I thought before the race that either Kenya or Ethiopia would win,” said Kiprotich, who has moved to the famed Eldoret region of the Kenya’s Rift Valley to train with former world 5000m champion Eliud Kipchoge.

12 August 2012 – 11:00

Position	Bib	Athlete	Country	Mark	.
1	3113	Stephen Kiprotich	UGA	2:08:01	.
2	2304	Abel Kirui	KEN	2:08:27	.
3	2302	Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich	KEN	2:09:37	.
4	3225	Mebrahtom Keflezighi	USA	2:11:06	.
5	1226	Marilson dos Santos	BRA	2:11:10	.
6	2230	Kentaro Nakamoto	JPN	2:11:16	.
7	3368	Cuthbert Nyasango	ZIM	2:12:08	(PB)
8	1229	Paulo Roberto Paula	BRA	2:12:17	.
9	2672	Henryk Szost	POL	2:12:28	.
10	2139	Ruggero Pertile	ITA	2:12:45	.
11	2971	Viktor Röthlin	SUI	2:12:48	.
12	3147	Oleksandr Sitkovskyy	UKR	2:12:56	(SB)
13	1222	Franck de Almeida	BRA	2:13:35	.
14	2824	Aleksey Reunkov	RUS	2:13:49	.
15	3367	Wirimai Juwawo	ZIM	2:14:09	(SB)
16	1059	Michael Shelley	AUS	2:14:10	.
17	2315	Emmanuel Kipchirchir Mutai	KEN	2:14:49	.
18	2457	Rachid Kisri	MAR	2:15:09	.
19	1593	Yared Asmerom	ERI	2:15:24	.
20	1304	Dylan Wykes	CAN	2:15:26	.
21	2629	Raúl Pacheco	PER	2:15:35	.
22	1288	Eric Gillis	CAN	2:16:00	.
23	2825	Dmitriy Safronov	RUS	2:16:04	.
24	1615	Carles Castillejo	ESP	2:16:17	.
25	2484	Iaroslav Musinschi	MDA	2:16:25	.
26	2760	Marius Ionescu	ROU	2:16:28	.
27	1285	Reid Coolsaet	CAN	2:16:29	.
28	1041	Martin Dent	AUS	2:16:29	(SB)
29	3146	Vitaliy Shafar	UKR	2:16:36	.
30	1822	Lee Merrien	GBR	2:17:00	.
31	1613	Ignacio Cáceres	ESP	2:17:11	.
32	2358	Duhaeng Lee	KOR	2:17:19	.
33	3015	Faustine Mussa	TAN	2:17:39	.
34	1620	José Carlos Hernández	ESP	2:17:48	.
35	1019	Miguel Barzola	ARG	2:17:54	.
36	2594	Urige Buta	NOR	2:17:58	.
37	2800	Grigoriy Andreev	RUS	2:18:20	.
38	2014	José Amado García	GUA	2:18:23	.
39	2507	Daniel Vargas	MEX	2:18:26	.
40	2242	Ryo Yamamoto	JPN	2:18:34	.
41	1548	Jesper Faurschou	DEN	2:18:44	.
42	2117	Kári Steinn Karlsson	ISL	2:18:47	.
43	2777	Lusapho April	RSA	2:19:00	.
44	2480	Mike Tebulo	MAW	2:19:11	(SB)
45	2222	Arata Fujiwara	JPN	2:19:11	.
46	2929	Primož Kobe	SLO	2:19:28	.
47	2079	Guor Marial	IOA	2:19:32	.
48	2709	Luís Feiteira	POR	2:19:40	(SB)
49	2786	Stephen Mokoka	RSA	2:19:52	.
50	1570	Miguel Ángel Almachi	ECU	2:19:53	.
51	2515	Ser-Od Bat-Ochir	MGL	2:20:10	.
52	2736	Song-Chol Pak	PRK	2:20:20	.
53	2735	Kwang-Hyok Kim	PRK	2:20:20	.
54	1348	Guojian Dong	CHN	2:20:39	.
55	2962	Anuradha Cooray	SRI	2:20:41	.
56	2216	Methkal Abu Drais	JOR	2:21:00	.
57	2096	Mark Kenneally	IRL	2:21:13	.
58	1596	Yonas Kifle	ERI	2:21:25	.
59	3123	Ivan Babaryka	UKR	2:21:52	.
60	2496	Carlos Cordero	MEX	2:22:08	.
61	1828	Scott Overall	GBR	2:22:37	.
62	3348	Pedro Mora	VEN	2:22:40	.
63	1047	Jeff Hunt	AUS	2:22:59	.
64	1167	Stsiapan Rahautsou	BLR	2:23:23	.
65	1449	César Lizano	CRC	2:24:16	.
66	3016	Samson Ramadhani	TAN	2:24:53	(SB)
67	1517	Jan Kreisinger	CZE	2:25:03	.
68	2753	Mohammed Abduh Bakhet	QAT	2:25:17	.
69	1731	Jussi Utriainen	FIN	2:26:25	.
70	2500	Arturo Malaquias	MEX	2:26:37	.
71	3066	Wissem Hosni	TUN	2:26:43	.
72	2045	Tamás Kovács	HUN	2:27:48	.
73	2351	Sinkweon Jang	KOR	2:28:20	.
74	1012	Antoni Bernadó	AND	2:28:34	.
75	2423	Marcel Tschopp	LIE	2:28:54	.
76	3076	Bekir Karayel	TUR	2:29:38	.
77	3030	Chia-Che Chang	TPE	2:29:58	.
78	2070	Ram Singh Yadav	IND	2:30:06	.
79	2905	Jean Pierre Mvuyekure	RWA	2:30:19	.
80	1985	Konstadínos Poúlios	GRE	2:33:17	.
81	2121	Zohar Zemiro	ISR	2:34:59	.
82	2352	Jinhyeok Jeong	KOR	2:38:45	.
83	1412	Juan Carlos Cardona	COL	2:40:13	.
84	3026	Augusto Soares	TLS	2:45:09	.
85	2419	Tsepo Ramonene	LES	2:55:54	.
.	1007	Tayeb Filali	ALG	DNF	.
.	1089	Günther Weidlinger	AUT	DNF	.
.	1354	Zicheng Li	CHN	DNF	.
.	1407	Zatara Mande Ilunga	COD	DNF	.
.	1602	Samuel Tsegay	ERI	DNF	.
.	1676	Ayele Abshero	ETH	DNF	.
.	1684	Getu Feleke	ETH	DNF	.
.	1692	Dino Sefir	ETH	DNF	.
.	1756	Abraham Kiprotich	FRA	DNF	.
.	1761	Abdellatif Meftah	FRA	DNF	.
.	1768	Patrick Tambwé	FRA	DNF	.
.	2397	Valerijs Žolnerovics	LAT	DNF	.
.	2409	Ali Mabrouk El Zaidi	LBA	DNF	.
.	2451	Abderrahime Bouramdane	MAR	DNF	.
.	2485	Roman Prodius	MDA	DNF	.
.	2717	Rui Pedro Silva	POR	DNF	.
.	2788	Coolboy Ngamole	RSA	DNF	.
.	2953	Darko Živanovic	SRB	DNF	.
.	3203	Abdihakem Abdirahman	USA	DNF	.
.	3219	Ryan Hall	USA	DNF

Related articles

• Uganda’s Kiprotich wins marathon (bbc.co.uk)
• Uganda’s Kiprotich wins marathon gold (thehindu.com)
• Hero’s welcome for Uganda runner (bbc.co.uk)
• Marathon man Kiprotich ends Uganda’s long wait for Olympic gold (edition.cnn.com)
• The Second Medal (donotmentionthewar.wordpress.com)
• Kiprotich stuns rivals to claim gold for Uganda (morningstaronline.co.uk)
• Kiprotich’s remote small village in international spotlight (lutayaholmes.wordpress.com)

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Rudisha Breaks 800m World Record

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(Aug 10) David Rudisha became the first athlete to set a new world record on the track at London 2012 as he won 800m gold. It was the first world record in an 800m Olympic final since Cuba’s Alberto Juantorena set the mark in the 1976 final.

The 23-year-old Kenyan stormed to victory in his debut Olympic final to become the first man inside one minute 41 seconds, clocking 1:40.91.

Botswana 18-year-old Nijel Amos took silver, with another teenager, Kenya’s Timothy Kitum,17  in bronze.

Rudisha led the field with the first 400m in 49.28. Rudisha dragged the rest of the field through to Personal Bests and National Records, it was only Abubaker Kaki of Sudan who had to be contempt with a mere seasons best in seventh place.

But after breaking his own world record he believes he can go even faster.

He said: “After running two rounds before the final I got a little bit tired. I told the physio yesterday that I was feeling sore after the semis, so if I can get fresh then I can still improve on that.”

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His pace was consistent throughout, clocking 23 seconds for the first 200m, 25 for the second, 25 for the third, and 26.1 for the final quarter.

Photo Credits: Couriermail.au

Coached by Irish Brother Colm O’Conell who hails from Cork. Winning Olympic gold was not a new experience for St Patrick’s 63-year-old athletics coach. O’Connell lost count of how many world champions he has coached when the number passed 20. The man from Cork is, without doubt, the world’s most successful track coach but Rudisha, 23, is special even by his high standards.  O’Conell first spotted Rudisha as a decathlete.

His racing ability though is the product of O’Connell who invited him to transfer to a school in his area when he noticed how well he ran 400 metres in a junior decathlon competition. Now, to use the Maasai title his tribe awarded him when he won his world title, he is surely the High Maasai Moran, ‘The Leader of the Community’. There was a gathering of 5,000 of his tribe and 1,000 of their bulls to celebrate his world title. It hardly bears thinking what will happen when the prodigal son returns this time.

800 Metres – M   Final

Position	Lane	Bib	Athlete	Country	Mark	.
1	4	2319	David Lekuta Rudisha	KEN	1:40.91	(WR)
2	5	1211	Nijel Amos	BOT	1:41.73	(WJ)
3	3	2306	Timothy Kitum	KEN	1:42.53	(PB)
4	7	3252	Duane Solomon	USA	1:42.82	(PB)
5	8	3254	Nick Symmonds	USA	1:42.95	(PB)
6	6	1678	Mohammed Aman	ETH	1:43.20	(NR)
7	9	2967	Abubaker Kaki	SUD	1:43.32	(SB)
8	2	1827	Andrew Osagie	GBR	1:43.77	(PB)

Intermediate	Bib	Athlete	nat	Mark
400m	2319	David Lekuta Rudisha	KEN	49.28
600m	2319	David Lekuta Rudisha	KEN	1:14.30

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source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/olympics/article-2186205/London-2012-Olympics-David-Rudisha-wins-800m-gold-world-record-time.html
source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18914380

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Related articles

• Coe Salutes Record Breaker Rudisha (prweb.com)
• Seb Coe reckons Usain Bolt would lose if he went head-to-head with David Rudisha (thesun.co.uk)
• Rudisha smashes WR, wins Olympics gold (capitalfm.co.ke)
• David Rudisha set the first world record at the Olympic Stadium to win 800m gold last night (thesun.co.uk)
• Live Sport Reports: Rudisha sets new 800m world record (walesonline.co.uk)
• David Rudisha Sets World Record in Men’s 800-Meter Dash Win (bleacherreport.com)
• David Epstein: World record leaves us wondering, how low can Rudisha go in 800? (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
• London 2012 Olympics: Kenya’s David Rudisha storms to 800m world record (telegraph.co.uk)
• ‘King David’ seeks to ascend to Olympics throne (capitalfm.co.ke)
• Zurich Diamond League: Aman Beats Rudisha, Blake and Bolt win (videos) (pinoyathletics.com)

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Kenyan sprinter made to re-run 400m solo at World Juniors to qualify for Final.

Pirie Enzo, results from IAAF, link provided to Hurdler49

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A Re-run in the Semi Finals
(Jul 15), Lets start off with what was a very interesting 400m event at World Juniors in Barcelona. According to an IAAF rule as the athlete wasnt properly settled in the blocks when the gun went off. Kenyan Alphas Leken Kishoyian was allowed to re-run the race again ‘SOLO!’. This is the first time this has ever happened at a major meet and opens up as thrilling a set of IAAF rules as the re-run ordered between Felix and Tarmoe after the US Trials. You can read all about it here on Hurdler49′s blog.

Kishoyian re-runs the 400 by himself

Kishoyian for the record finished 6th in the final in 46.19, a credible performance considering he had to run 3 times prior to this in the last 2 days leading up to the finals. Whereas everyone else ran twice.

400m Final and Results

Position	Lane	Bib	Athlete	Country	Mark	.	React
1	6	228	Luguelín Santos	DOM	44.85	.	0.210
2	4	917	Arman Hall	USA	45.39	(PB)	0.158
3	8	40	Steven Solomon	AUS	45.52	(PB)	0.141
3	5	901	Aldrich Bailey	USA	45.52	.	0.149
5	9	854	Machel Cedenio	TRI	46.17	.	0.225
6	1	568	Alphas Leken Kishoyian	KEN	46.19	.	0.192
7	3	574	Boniface Ontuga Mweresa	KEN	46.50	.	0.321
8	2	778	Nikita Uglov	RUS	46.61	.	0.190
9	7	515	Javon Francis	JAM	47.57	.	0.214

Meanwhile in the Mens 400m Final, Luquellin Santos who has a personal best of 44.45 has emerged on the scene from the Dominican Republic. Perhaps as much a phenom as the man who was the world junior champion before him and later became world champion from Grenada Kirani James. Santos went onto win the event by more than half a second in 44.85 hardly breaking a sweat with Arman Hall of the United States second in 45.39. Third was so close between the other American Aldrich Bailey and Steven Solomon in 45.52, that they couldn’t even separate it by 1000th of a second so the organisers awarded both of them the bronze medal. ‘Imagine how interesting it would be if they made them both run off for the bronze?’

Santos easily takes the world junior 400m title in 44.85, with a tie for bronze between two runners.