ELDORET, Kenya, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- World 800m record holder David Rudisha from Kenya said here Friday that he has nothing to prove at the global stage but to take the Olympic title this times.
Rudisha, 30, has not run competitively for the last two years, but feels he still has the fire burning in him to deliver a third Olympic title in Tokyo.
"The Olympics is the epitome of sports Excellency. And nobody has ever been able to win three titles in 800m race. That inspires me. I know it's very hard for any athlete to win three Olympic titles," Rudisha told reporters in Eldoret.
"Champions are made out of difficult accomplishments, it is not easy and for me, it is even harder because there are also youngsters who are coming up, they are also very enthusiastic, they pose really tough challenges and they want to win."
The world record holder (1:40.91) has been struggling with recurrent back and knee injuries. He said that it is all over now as he has started light training.
In 2013, Rudisha suffered a knee injury while training in New York that failed to heal in time and he had to miss the Moscow World Championships.
However, he worked hard and returned to fitness and was able to retain it in Beijing in 2015 and went on to retain gold in Rio Olympics in 2016.
However, the quad muscle injury slowed him down in 2017 and he only managed four races in Shanghai (fourth), Jamaica and Hungarian grand Prix. He also ran one 1,000m race in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
"I am in good shape now. I had to lose some weight and I have started training. For now, I don't feel any pain in my training. When I push harder I will be able to know how prepared I am. That will confirm if the injury is completely healed," said Rudisha.
However, the Kenyan ruled out running at the World Athletics Indoor Tour, which starts in January and will culminate in the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China in March. Enditem
