Legendary Rudisha named ambassador in upcoming Budapest World Championship

Two-time and back-to-back Olympic champion David Rudisha will over the course of the next month wear a new badge of honor as he takes up a new tag as Ambassador of the World Athletics Championships Budapest 2023.

The 19th edition of the global championships are set to kick off from 19-27 August at the National Athletics Centre, in Budapest, Hungary - making it the first time the event is being held in the country.

Surprisingly, the two-time World champion over 800m, will be present and in the midst of world’s current best athletes in the same country where he had his last international race on a certain 4 July 2017 in an unfancied Bregyo Athletic Center in Hungary.

“I am absolutely delighted to be handed this role as the ambassador for the World Athletics Championships in Hungary,” Rudisha - who was present in Kenya’s team to Budapest flagging off ceremony on Thursday evening told Mozzart Sport.

“It is a big privilege and honor to not only represent the world but be the shining light for our country

“This just shows how incredible our efforts as athletes has been over the years and most importantly, to realize that Kenya is being recognized as a top nation when it comes to athletics.”

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The new role doesn’t come as a huge surprise for the track legend, his performances over the course of a budding career that gathered pace in 2004 to holding the three fastest, six of the eight fastest, and half of the twenty fastest times ever run in 800m history, earning him the well deserved seat at the top table.

“This new role I believe goes a long way in motivating a lot of the young athletes among us who want to do well and win,” he added.

Rudisha’s 800m track-record at the World Athletics Championships is a remarkable one; beginning with a first senior global title at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, where he won with a time of 1:43.91, to rebounding from an injury that kept him out of the 2013 games with his second world title at the World Championships held in Beijing, clocking 1:45.84.

“Athletics is a journey,” Rudisha, the IAAF World Athlete of the Year award in 2010 said. “Even now with the young athletes I can see around (making reference to the youngest squad members of the team to Budapest in Faith Cherotich, Ishmael Kipkirui and Purity Chepkirui), my advice to them is to just believe and have no fear. That will be key for them to win.”

Wise words coming from a man who in November 2010, at just 21, became the youngest ever athlete to win the IAAF World Athlete of the Year award, to also being crowned Kenyan Sportsman of the Year.

“I see a lot of promise in this Kenyan team and it will be really exciting in some days time, watching them dominate in their respective races,” the only person to ever run 800 metres under 1:41 added.

Rudisha, is himself now entering a different space in the athletics world, serving as the International Event Ambassador for the 14th edition of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon in 2017, to holding similar roles in local cross-country events in the country.

The recent appointment comes at the backdrop of another Kenyan great, Paul Tergat, being announced as ambassador of the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathurst last February.

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Fancying an exciting matchup in the men’s 800m event in Budapest, Rudisha’s message to all athletes is clear; “Don’t give too much thought in the races. Everything will sort itself out. All that matters is how prepared you are, and how you wake up feeling on the day.”

Olympic and World Champion Emmanuel Korir will attempt to win his second consecutive world title in Budapest, but will have to contend with the fast rising Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Ferguson Rotich and Alex Ng’eno.