Rudisha is back

By Gilbert Wandera and Agencies

The men 800m world record holder and 2010 Athlete of the year David Rudisha returns to Diamond League action next week (June 30).

Rudisha has been out with an injury and his return is expected to spice up the seventh stop of this year’s Diamond League meetings.

Rudisha’s first stop will be in Nancy France this Friday where he is expected to hone his final preparation before returning to Lausanne where he won last year in 1:43.25 beating World champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi of South Africa and compatriot Alfred Kirwa Yego.

800m world record holder David Rudisha races to victory in the Berling Grand Prix meeting last year. Photo: File/Standard

Both will be in the field again this year, along with European champion Marcin Lewandowski of Poland who appears in great shape.

Meanwhile, never in the meeting’s history has such a range of men’s 5,000m been assembled. The confrontation includes Ethiopians Imane Merga and Tariku Bekele taking on a Kenyan quintet comprising of Vincent Chepkok, Augustine Choge, Mark Kiptoo, Lucas Rotich and Edwin Soi, all authors of sub-13 minute performances.

Meeting record

The meeting record set by Sammy Kipketer (13:01.93) 11 years ago will be in danger.

In the women’s 1,500m, the struggle for victory promises to be intense.

Maryam Jamal, whose has won three times, will take on arch rival Gelete Burka of Ethiopia who won here in the last two editions, and Ibtissam Lakhouad, the Moroccan beaten at the wire last year.

These are three of the four women who have run under four minutes in la Pontaise stadium.

Elsewhere, Boston Marathon champions Geoffrey Mutai and Caroline Kilel are the standout names lining-up for the inaugural B.A.A. 10K next Sunday.

Also returning to Boston will be Moses Mosop and Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia, the runner-up and third place finishers at Boston this year.

The women’s field is led by 2011 Boston Marathon champion Kilel.

The 30-year-old Kenyan returns to run her first race since winning the olive wreath in April. Joining her will be New Zealand’s Kim Smith, a 2008 Olympian and national record holder at 5km (14:59.

Smith, whose personal best at 10km is 31:23, led the first 18 miles of the 115th Boston Marathon before a torn muscle forced her to drop out.

Now healthy and recovered, the Providence College graduate is coming off of a sixth place finish in the New York Mini 10K, in which she ran 32:32.

Meanwhile, with the BMW Berlin Marathon 100 days away, organisers announced that World record holder Haile Gebrselassie will return to the streets of the German capital on September 25.

It was in this IAAF Gold Label Road Race that the Ethiopian superstar had his greatest success as a Marathon runner, winning four times in a row between 2006 and 2009 and clocking the World Marathon record twice (2007 and 2008). His time of 2:03:59 still stands today as the mark to beat.

"I love the Berlin Marathon. The crowds are fantastic and on a good day everything is possible on this extremely fast course," Gebrselassie said.

Gebrselassie wants to qualify for the Ethiopian squad for next year’s Olympic Marathon in London. The last Marathon he completed was in Dubai in 2010 where he clocked 2:06:09.

Last November he dropped out of the ING New York City Marathon after 25 kilometres with knee problems and announced the end of his running career.

Shortly thereafter he stepped back from his decision and announced he would run the Tokyo Marathon in February.

He had to skip that race though after a fall on a training run where he hurt his knee.