Why warrior hero David Rudisha wants to to make Lord Coe proud

"It is a great feeling, being somebody who has done something special for both my country and my people. People are really happy for me. Wherever I go, people congratulated me and are pleased to see me. It was a great achievement to the community, as Maasai. In Kenya, the people who have been running are the Kalenjin and the Maasai have been producing very few runners only really [two-time 800m world champion] Billy Konchellah, Stephen Ole Marai and my father."

Daniel Rudisha won silver in the 4X400m at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and his son naturally credits his success to his father saying that he always wanted to be like him.

But the 2010 IAAF Athlete of the Year also has a great admiration for Lord Coe, Britain's double Olympic gold medallist and chairman of London 2012. Rudisha has studied YouTube videos of Coe's success and after he beat the peer's 31-year stadium record in Oslo last year the pair got the opportunity to meet.

"Sebastian congratulated me and told me I was the future of 800m and that if I keep focused and train hard that I am capable of great things," said the 6ft 3ins athlete. "I was really happy and felt encouraged. I think about his words a lot and it gives me extra motivation to keep training and do all that I can to achieve historic things in my sport. I spent many hours watching the way he ran, his technique, rthe way he used to compete, his tactics. Sebastian is shorter than me but he was very strong. He was fantastic."

Rudisha is visiting London for the first time and will compete against the only man who has been close to pushing him over the two years, double world indoor champion Abubaker Kaki of Sudan, in the two-day London Grand Prix, which starts at Crystal Palace tonight.

An ankle injury forced Rudisha to miss the early part of the season, but he is now fully fit and it is his regard for Coe that would make a triumph, both tonight and at next year's Olympics, particularly poignant for the Kenyan.

"I want to do something special and make Sebastian proud since he is my friend and we have been talking together lots," he said. "Competing in his country means so much to me and I really want to do my best at Crystal Palace. I am looking forward to competing with my friend Abubaker Kaki too. This will be our first meeting this season and we always give each other stiff opposition. Racing with Kaki is not easy though, he wants to win and so do I so that's lots of pressure.

"I pulled a muscle in my thigh before the Kenyan trials for the Beijing Olympics and so I couldn't go. But I wasn't too disappointed because I knew I had time because I was still young. For London 2012 I really hope I am fit and healthy though because that will be Sebastian's Olympics and I want to run by best ever time there."

Given his feats over a relatively short time it does not seem outlandish to think Rudisha could, by the time of the Olympics, be pushing close to the watershed time of 1min 40sec which equates to eight consecutive 100m segments of 12.5sec.

More immediately, the fastest 800m run in Britain, 1min 43.22sec set by England's Steve Cram when winning the 1986 Commonwealth title in Edinburgh looks under threat.

"Yes," said Rudisha. "My shape really is there now. My body feels fit and healthy I am almost back to my best after having an injury earlier this season. I expect maybe to be running around 1:42 here if things go well.

"At the moment I am focusing on winning the world title in Daegu, but maybe in the future I will try to run under 1:41. I want to win races first, win my first major title, and maybe after the World Championships I will focus on the clock and try to do one or two races to see if I can perform like last year, or perhaps even faster."

A handful of tickets remain for tonight's Aviva London Grand Prix and will be available on the gate. The session starts at 5.07pm with the last race at 9.14pm. Tomorrow is sold out.