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Nairobi, March 2 (IANS) World 800m record holder David Rudisha has called for patience as he cautiously works his way back to action after three years of absence due to injury.
Rudisha has been changing projected return dates for over 18 months. After his injury in 2017, he said he planned to return to action in June 2018, then he pushed it to December and later said August last year was possible.
But for the first time, there is a ray of hope the 30-year-old may have run off his fitness problems and will be back on the road to competition, reports Xinhua news agency.
"I have always had a nagging injury, every time I try to push myself to a certain level, I start feeling some pain," Rudisha said on Monday.
The Olympic champion has for long suffered an upper hamstring muscle, a similar problem that saw him miss out defending his crown at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow.
Although Rudisha has reduced the number of visits to the doctors, in Kenya and the Netherlands, he can now start dreaming of returning to competition, and not necessarily getting to the fitness level for him to imagine clinching a third gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
"I don't want to go back to competition with the attitude that I am invincible David Rudisha. That I can do it just like I did it in 2012 season. No. With that mentality, I could easily pick up another problem. I have to go slow like a beginner," Rudisha assessed his chances.
His first concern is to get rid of the excess weight. He has shed eight kilos since starting gym work and light training in Ngong area in Nairobi in December. He now weighs 82kg.
But he targets an ideal weight of 75kg, which he had when breaking the world record (1:40.91) at the Olympic Games in London in 2012. He remains the only man to have run the 800m race in under one minute and 41 seconds.
"My body is fast getting into shape, like it remembers what it needs to do. I have to be realistic and grounded on the risk of aggravating my problems. But deep inside me there is a burning desire, a dream to go for a third Olympic title. I am hoping to be fit by the time we go for Kenya trials in June," Rudisha added.
Alongside the injury, the 800m legendary runner had to endure a near fatal accident, which saw his car written off after a head-on collision.
While he has been away, several pretenders to the throne have blossomed and staked claim to his turf.
Commonwealth Games champion Wycliffe Kinyamal, Ferguson Rotich, Michael Saruni, Emmanuel Korir and Alfred Kipketer make some of the Kenyans who have showed glimpses of their talent.
However, none has been commandeering enough to maintain a firm grip on the two lap race. The iminent return of the king might ruffle a few feathers.
--IANS
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