‘Overweight’ Rudisha reveals strategy for third straight Olympics title
Double Olympic 800m champion and world record holder, David Rudisha, will be seeking to be the first man to hit a title hat-trick at next years’ Olympics Games in Tokyo.
However, Rudisha says before he can defend his Olympic crown, he needs to shed off a few kilos.
Rudisha hasn’t been able to properly train for the last two and half years.
For the entire period, Rudisha, who holds the world record with an official time of 1:40.91, has been struggling with a recurring injury.
As a result he has put on a few kilos which has made him abit ‘chubby’ as compared to a few years ago.
However, Rudisha, who has fully recovered, has now resumed training and with eight months to go before the start of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, he is racing against time to shed off weight to be fit.
“I have fully recovered and already started training. My aim is to defend my Olympic title in Tokyo but I know it won’t be easy. I’m working on shedding off some weight then see how my body reacts to the training,” Rudisha told K24.
FITNESS LEVEL
The 30-year-old Police Inspector is currently engaged in light training before taking in more rigorous program that will determine his level of fitness.
Rudisha, who did not run competitively in 2018 and 2019 seasons, won his first Olympic gold medal in the London 2012, when he also set the world record.
He defended his crown four years later at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. He is now is eyeing a third Olympics title.
In a separate interview with Reuters, Rudisha noted that he knows his ambition won’t be an easy one especially with the new young crop of athletes.
“Nobody has ever done three Olympics and I know it’s very hard for any athlete to win three Olympic titles. I know it’s not easy because there are also youngster who are coming up, they are also very enthusiastic, they pose really tough challenge and they want to win,” he was quoted.